


Truth in Darkness

by Komorii



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Angst, Childhood Friends, F/M, Ionian geography, Ionian lore, Set in Zed comic universe, Smut, Timeskips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:55:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27395308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komorii/pseuds/Komorii
Summary: You had moved on with your life, no longer a member of the Kinkou that you had served as a child. You thought that your past with Zed was behind you, that you were no longer the girl you used to be, but there was something about Zed that always seemed to draw you back to him.
Relationships: Zed/Reader
Comments: 18
Kudos: 91





	Truth in Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry that this one took a while, it ended up being much longer than my usual league stories! xD  
> Some info:  
> -This story is set in the Zed comic universe, so I just wanted to warn people that he isn't as edgy in the comics as he is in his voice lines  
> -It isn't necessary to read the comic before you read this story, but it's a great comic and I do recommend it!  
> -Zed has several names in the comics, so Govos/Usan/Zed are all referring to him at different points in his life
> 
> Lastly, I've been unsure of what champion to write for next, so I made a poll with some options that I'm considering!  
> Edit: Have closed the poll for now, but I think the next one I'm going to be writing for will be Spirit Blossom Thresh! Other updates on league stories or other writing can be found on my [tumblr](https://ao3komorii.tumblr.com/)

It was hard to remember your life before you came to Thanjuul Monastery at the age of six. You could vaguely remember your parents taking you to a festival, and your mother braiding your hair. But you couldn’t remember what their faces looked like, or what their voices sounded like. It almost felt like you had spent your whole life within the monastery walls.

You had known that your parents would go away sometimes, leaving you to stay at a neighbor’s house. That, and any other familiar routine in your life was not meant to last, shattered by the man in blue that had come to knock on your neighbor’s door to inform them that your parents had gotten in an accident. You would later find out that they had been slaughtered by a demon while on a mission.

Your parents had been members of the Kinkou Order; tasked with maintaining the balance between the spirit and natural worlds. They had kept you away from their work, which had only made it worse for you when you were forced to leave your home behind to be taken to the monastery that would become your new home.

Your first few days at the monastery you had done nothing but cry. You had lost all sense of home and familiarity, and had only been taken in by the Kinkou out of obligation to your parents. You were not particularly wanted, or welcome.

You quickly became desperate to be useful, not wanting to be discarded again. You eagerly took any job that was sent your way, often sweeping floors and washing laundry to earn your keep.

You admired the members of the Order, clad in blue robes, as they sought to maintain balance in the world. The more chores you did, the more you idolized those who lived the life you could only dream of. At night, tired from the day’s work, you would dream about becoming an official member of the Kinkou, but you knew that Master Kusho, the leader of the Kinkou and current Eye of Twilight, had the final say.

Master Kusho led the Order efficiently, and had a lot of sway in regards to new members. You had seen him around the monastery, but had never talked to him. You had seen him training his son Shen, enviously wishing for the same opportunity. But as the years went by, you had yet to speak one word to Master Kusho, let alone receive any training from him.

By the age of fourteen, you had resigned yourself to doing chores in the day and training by yourself at night, hoping that you would eventually get a chance to prove yourself to a master. But all your secret training got you was stinging cuts that burned the next day when you scrubbed the floors. Nobody would give a poor orphaned servant girl the chance to prove herself.

You had trudged back to your room one day, too tired to go and train after sweeping the entire grounds of the monastery, when you heard the sounds of a fight. You crept back into the hallway, peering out to see two boys your age sparring. You immediately recognized the figure of Master Kusho’s son as he kicked forward, but his opponent was another story.

You craned your neck, trying to get a good look at the face of the silver-haired boy as he tried to block Shen’s attacks. Only when he fell did you recognize him at last; you had seen the boy before, washing dishes in the kitchen as you had gone to deliver a scroll to the cook. You had made brief eye contact with him then, but neither of you had said a word. You knew that the cook wouldn’t have permitted it anyways; you had once witnessed him chewing out a young servant girl for breathing too loudly and weren’t willing to do anything to gain his ire.

You had thought that he was a mere servant like you, but here he was, training with the son of the leader of the Kinkou. You went to bed with hope in your heart that it would be your turn to be noticed next. That you would be able to serve the Kinkou’s cause just as your parents had.

But the next day passed with no offers of training. And then the next day. By the time that a week had passed with no changes to your life, you had cried yourself to sleep for the first time since you were a child.

But the next morning, you wiped away your tears, your resolve hardened. There was nothing you could do but double down on your own training. You had no way of knowing if or when an offer would come your way, but you intended to be worthy of being a master’s student.

You began to hear whispers around the monastery of the new student that Master Kusho had taken on and began to train alongside his own son. You watched as Master Kusho would take the two boys with him on missions, and train them when they were on monastery grounds. You especially liked watching the two boys spar, trying to emulate their moves in your own solo training.

You had to admit that training by yourself was not as effective as if you had a master. You stared at the tree you had been practicing on, breathing heavily. You knew that you would never get better with a tree as an opponent; unruly spirits wouldn’t stand still and wait for you to take them down. A real opponent would require you to adapt your moves and strategies on the fly, which seemed almost unfathomable to you at your current skill level.

You had been staring at a whorl in the tree, lost in thought, when you were startled by the rustling of a bush near you. Turning sharply around, you clasped your hands in front of your chest as your mind spun with potential excuses for why you had been out here. It wasn’t technically against the rules for you to train without a master, but the Kinkou lived by a strict code, and you would be devastated if this was used as a reason to kick you out of the monastery.

Your hastily-prepared excuses died on your lips as you met eyes with the boy with the short silver hair that you had watched train for months now. You both stared at each other as you tried to think of something to say, but the boy broke the silence first.

“I’ve seen you before,” he said, almost seeming startled by his own words as he hastily continued on. “You’re a servant at the monastery.”

The word _servant_ clung to your skin like a rash, and you looked down in shame at the reminder of your position. No matter what you did, you would be nothing but a lowly servant to the Kinkou.

Ashamed and embarrassed, you kept your head down as you tried to walk by him, but were stopped in your tracks by his voice.

“Wait!”

You looked back at him, and were surprised to see resolve in his face as he stared intently at you. You looked at him in confused silence for a long moment before he snapped out of it and spoke up again.

“Your kicks are too low.”

How long had he been standing in the brush for? You froze up, feeling self-conscious about the results of all of your training.

The boy offered you a shy smile. “I can help you if you want.”

“What?”

He gestured with his head towards the open space that you had been practicing in. He walked over to stand in front of the tree you had been practicing your moves on with you reluctantly following behind him.

He nodded at you before facing the tree again, taking a moment to position himself before kicking forward, his foot gently impacting the bark of the tree. Turning back to you, he motioned you forward.

“You need to position your leg higher,” he said, lifting his own leg momentarily to demonstrate his point. “When you aim so low, your kick will have much less power.”

“Oh… I never knew that,” you replied softly.

“I can help you train,” the boy offered, and you stared at him in shock.

“You don’t have to…” you trailed off, not wanting to impose on him, not when he probably had better things to do than teach a hopeless servant girl how to fight.

“You don’t have a master,” he said with a frown. “I’m nowhere near as skilled as my master, but I was just like you before he took me as an apprentice. Let me help you.”

“I…” Your desire to improve yourself was battling with your learned shyness from years of being invisible to those at the monastery. You wanted desperately to accept his offer of help, and finally allowed yourself to be convinced as you observed the earnestness in his eyes. “…okay.”

The boy smiled, and you found yourself smiling back at him. In the whole time that you had been here, you had never had someone be so nice to you. It was an odd feeling, but a pleasant one.

The boy reached a hand out towards you, and you stared at it for a moment before taking it into your own.

“My name is Govos.”

Shyly telling him your own name in return, you rejoiced internally at finally grasping a chance to become good enough to be a true member of the Kinkou.

You still did all your chores, but now you had something to look forward to. Govos still had his own training to do, and would frequently leave the monastery with Shen and Master Kusho on missions, but he made time to train with you whenever he could. His kindness had brought color into your world at last, and you quickly began to see improvement in your combat prowess.

Govos would tell you about his experiences outside of the monastery, about bringing supplies to villages and soothing troubled natural spirits. The more you heard from him, the more you wanted to be out there in the world, serving the Kinkou Order in a more significant way. But at the same time, you knew that you weren’t good enough yet, and you didn’t want to appeal to a master and get rejected.

So you dedicated yourself to training, whether with Govos or by yourself. You found yourself more often than not waiting near the entrance to the monastery when you knew Govos would be returning, relaxing only when you saw his face. You tried not to worry while he was gone, but you knew that deep down, you were afraid that he would leave and not return like your parents had.

You had been busy with the laundry when the air at the monastery suddenly grew tense. Your stomach burst out in knots as you heard the hushed voices while you went about delivering laundry.

“…so many dead…”

“…the golden demon…”

What had happened? Who had died? You had yet to see Govos, Shen, or even Master Kusho. You worried the entire day, scared that you had lost your only friend. You had been making small mistakes all day, so you had ended up finishing your work way later than usual. By that point, the sun had gone down with no sign of Govos returning, and you were so overcome with worry that you now found yourself sitting in the grass near the monastery entrance. You tried to pretend that you were just meditating, but you couldn’t fool yourself. You would probably stay here all night waiting for Govos to return.

The longer into the night that you stared at the arches that denoted the entrance of the monastery, the more blurry they started to look. You desperately tried to stay awake, but your mental stress throughout the day had tired you out more than you cared to admit, and soon keeping your eyes open was a challenge that you couldn’t overcome.

You didn’t realize that you had fallen asleep until you were gently prodded awake, the light beyond your eyelids telling you it was now morning. Opening your eyes, you saw Govos right in front of you, looking concerned. As soon as he noticed you were awake, his face relaxed.

“You’re back…” you murmured sleepily, a relieved smile coming to your lips.

“Were you here all night waiting?” he asked.

You sat up straighter, your back sore from sleeping against a tree all night. “I heard people saying there were deaths… I didn’t know…” you trailed off, feeling embarrassed that you had worried over nothing.

“There were deaths,” Govos confirmed solemnly. “We came upon a town on fire. There were so many wounded. My master said it was the work of the golden demon.”

“The golden demon…” you echoed as your gaze was drawn down to his collar, where a distinctive pendant hung on a simple cord.

Govos looked down at what you were looking at before looking back at you with a small smile on his face. “Master Kusho gave it to me after we took care of the surviving villagers. He said… he said that I was worthy of being the next Eye of Twilight. He gave me a new name, one befitting a Kinkou.”

You gasped in amazement; when you had first come across Govos, you had been jealous of the opportunities he had been given. But as the time went by and you had gotten closer, your jealousy had morphed into admiration. Now you just felt proud to have such a talented person as your friend.

“A new name?” you probed curiously.

“Usan,” he answered with a small smile.

“Usan,” you repeated, largely to yourself. “It fits you.”

After the appearance of the golden demon, your world began to shift rapidly. Usan was gone way more frequently, chasing after the demon alongside Shen and Master Kusho. Every time they came back, they got more and more frustrated with each failure to capture the creature. It was hard for you to remember the last time you had seen Usan smile. You couldn’t imagine the horrors he had seen chasing the trail of the murderous beast, but all you knew now was that you were slowly losing your friend to his seemingly-unending quest.

You had no choice but to accept your relationship with Usan for what it was, accepting whatever level of contact that he offered. You found yourself going back to that tree in the forest like you used to for training when Usan was gone. You would have preferred to train with him, but the skills you had learned from him over the years served you well. You knew that you could never have come this far on your own. You would improve your skills until you were at a level where a master could not refuse to take you on.

It was years of work, frustration, and many deaths before the golden demon was captured. You almost couldn’t believe it when Usan told you that the demon they had been chasing was not a demon, but a man. Khada Jhin was a monster in human form, and great care was taken to lock him securely away from society, in a location only known by Master Kusho and his two students.

You were relieved that the monster was caught, but Usan was not satisfied.

“He shouldn’t have been taken alive,” Usan spoke bitterly during your first training session together after Jhin’s capture. “If he ever escapes…”

“He shouldn’t,” you replied softly, as you handed him one of the wooden daggers you used to train with. “Only you three know where he’s imprisoned.”

You didn’t want to say more and further spoil your precious time with Usan, so neither of you brought up the doctrine of the Kinkou. The Kinkou Order existed to preserve the balance between man and spirit. Sometimes it was necessary to end a spirit’s life to end their pain, but Jhin was no spirit, nor demon. He was human, and it was not the Kinkou way to be the judge nor executioner of man.

You admitted silently that you were also unsatisfied with the humane capture of someone who had taken so many lives, but you had no say and no power. You didn’t even have a master. The Kinkou Order would not change its long-held rules just because you disagreed with them. You would be foolish to even try.

The Kinkou was all you had, which was another factor in your reluctant acceptance of the code. Without this place, you would have had nothing and nobody. If they had not taken you in, you may not have survived. Now you could only hope that you would eventually have the chance to join their cause.

But as you devoted yourself more to the Kinkou, Usan drifted farther away. Your talks of his differing ideals happened more and more frequently. You could tell he was getting closer to the edge every day, but what lay over that edge you did not know.

You had fully grown up in the temple, now almost twenty-four years old. You had lived at the temple for nearly seventeen years now, and still had little to show for it.

The world was in chaos like nothing before. Noxus was restless, hungry for war, and had begun to make strikes against cities on the Ionian coast. It would not take long before their armies would march onward, and the battle would be at your front door.

But Master Kusho would not compromise the Kinkou doctrine. The war was not the concern of the Kinkou. Disputes between men must be solved by men, not Kinkou, as the code demanded.

The added tensions in Ionia from the Noxian invaders had been having unfortunate effects on the spirit world as well, many more spirits than usual becoming restless and demon attacks increasing. The Kinkou were busy, and you never thought that number would include you until you found yourself standing before a master who had stopped you while you were sweeping floors.

“You have been here a long time,” he remarked, and you nodded politely.

Other than Usan, nobody talked to you much, so this was highly unusual. You were on edge, unsure of what to say to this man that had acknowledged your existence out of nowhere. You stayed deathly silent, afraid that even breathing too loudly would cause him to send you away.

“You serve the Kinkou, yet have no master?” he asked, and you shook your head. “I have need of an apprentice. I am getting older, and the spirits are no less calm, not with war on the horizon.”

“You want _me?”_ you said shakily, desperately hoping that you weren’t dreaming.

“Master Kusho has advised me that you would be a capable apprentice,” he added. “His son has talked quite highly of your skills.”

Shen had talked to his father about you? But you had never sparred with Shen… all of your training was done in the forest, away from prying eyes. But this was what you had wanted, happening at last. You could think about what had led up to this later.

“I would be honored to be your student!” you answered with a low bow.

Your new master let you go with your promise to meet him the next morning to go out on your very first mission. You tried not to skip away with how excited you were, knowing your master’s eyes were on your back as you walked away.

It almost didn’t feel real. You had wanted to be a true member of the Kinkou for so long that it was hard to believe that this was really happening. You fast-walked around the monastery, looking for the head of silver hair that belonged to your closest friend. You had almost given up on finding him when you saw Usan enter through the monastery gates.

You rushed over to him, failing to notice his dour mood in your excitement. He seemed surprised by your abrupt approach, staring silently at you as he waited for you to speak first.

“Usan, it happened!” you exclaimed. “A master asked me to be his student! I’m finally a true Kinkou!”

His face darkened immediately, leaving you confused. You really thought he would be happy for you. Why was he acting like this?

“…Usan?”

He let out a short breath, looking away from you for a brief moment before meeting your worried gaze with an anger in his eyes that you didn’t understand.

“I’m leaving the Kinkou.”

“What?” Your body felt numb and cold, like your soul had left your body. You had finally joined him as a member of the Kinkou Order and he was… leaving?

“In the temple, there is a box… the Tears of the Shadow,” he said, leaving you no less confused. You knew that the Kinkou kept many artifacts within the catacombs of the temple, but you had never heard of that one.

“The shadow magic in that box… it has the power to change the tide of this war. To drive back the Noxian invaders.”

You began to get a sinking feeling in your stomach that you knew how his story would end, and you were not made to wait for long.

“We have the means to stop the Noxians and end this war, but Kusho insists that any action from the Kinkou would corrupt the balance of the scales.”

You noticed that he didn’t refer to Kusho as master, but said nothing.

“He may not care if the people of Ionia die, but I do!” Usan growled angrily. “The ideals of the Kinkou are flawed, and all of Ionia will die if nothing changes. I have no choice but to leave the Order.”

“Usan, please –” you appealed desperately, grasping his sleeve, terrified to lose him.

Your vision was blurring as tears collected in your eyes, and you saw Usan’s angry eyes soften for a moment before he shook off your grip.

“I’m sorry.”

And then he left, and you sank down to the ground, unable to do anything but weep for your lost friend, and yet unable to muster the will to follow him. You didn’t have his courage; the Kinkou were all you had. You would be lost without them.

You had finally achieved your dream, and just wanted Usan to congratulate you, to make him proud… you had never imagined this would happen. You had achieved the dream you had dedicated your life to, but had lost the person you cared about more than anything. Your happiness had fled with Usan’s retreating figure, leaving you numb.

Eventually, there was a hand on your shoulder. You looked up with sore eyes to see Shen, his expression painted with sadness.

“Usan has left,” he said, and you shut your eyes as another sob left your mouth.

Shen helped you to your feet, supporting your stumbling weight as he led you through the monastery grounds and to his room. Closing the door behind you, he set about preparing some tea while you tried your best to stop crying.

Shen handed you a cup of tea, and you tried to keep your hands from shaking, holding the cup with two hands to keep it steady. Shen drank from his own cup, staying silent and giving you the time to compose your thoughts. Staring at his face, one thought rose to your lips before any other.

“Why did you tell your father I was skilled?”

You had to know. Even though in your heart, you knew that this was partly because you were desperate to talk about anything other than Usan’s departure from the Kinkou and from your life. If Shen noticed your switch of topic, he did not mention it.

“I have seen you train with Usan in the woods,” he replied softly. “You have been at the monastery for so long, and you possess too much skill to remain a servant when you have the ability to be more.”

“I never knew that you saw us…” you trailed off.

Shen was looking in your direction, but didn’t seem to be looking at you. “You remind me of how Usan used to be.”

You had thought that hearing his name would hurt, but the soft nostalgia in Shen’s voice just made you want to hear more. You wanted to know more about Usan from someone who had been by his side through things that you hadn’t, desperate to feel that Usan was still here with you, even just through your memories of him.

Shen seemed willing to reminisce with you, telling you stories of their travels with his father until late in the night. You were very engaged in his stories, but eventually your droopy eyelids won and you were unable to stay awake any longer.

You woke up the next morning in your own room. It seemed that Shen had carried you there after you had fallen asleep in his room.

Getting out of bed, you realized that you didn’t feel as bad as you thought that you would. Shen’s stories of the past had soothed your troubled heart. You still felt sad at the loss of Usan, but Shen’s kindness had made it a little easier to get up and face your day.

You were grateful for the mission with your new master, as it was an opportunity to further your skills, and it didn’t hurt that you were desperate to throw yourself into anything that would help you to forget the events of yesterday.

It hardly felt real as you left the grounds with your new master to deal with a troubled spirit south of the monastery. While you had trained your body over the years, you had very little exposure to the magic of the Kinkou. Training in Kinkou magic could only be passed down formally from master to student, and you threw yourself into the experience, eager to learn whatever your new master was willing to teach you.

The missions became more frequent as your skills advanced, and while your master was quiet, he seemed to be pleased with your progress. His actions spoke louder than words, the first time he let you take the lead on soothing a restless spirit showing you just how much he believed in your abilities.

Even back at the monastery, you didn’t allow yourself to spend too much time thinking about Usan. Shen was more than happy to spar with you, and now that you were an apprentice, you were able to train on the monastery grounds, no longer having to hide away in the forest to train in secret. You would be forever grateful to Shen; without him, you would have collapsed upon yourself with grief. You still had nights that you would dream of Usan, or times when you would see things and be reminded of him, but you could survive without his presence in your life.

It had been about a year since you had seen Usan. He hadn’t come back or even sent a single letter. You tried not to let it bother you, but deep down, you worried for your friend.

Ionia was in a state of constant turmoil. The Noxian invaders were ruthless, and could not be stopped. They had pushed beyond the shores of the island and marched forward, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Noxus was not a place of mercy, and thus far, any efforts to combat their invasion had been met with ferocious violence. Ionia was losing the war; that was an undeniable fact.

Your heart hurt more every time you heard further news of the casualties mounting higher, of the villages torched as the Noxian armies ravaged the land you had called home your whole life. But no matter how much you wanted to do something, you couldn’t. It was your duty to protect the balance between man and spirit. If you tried to interfere with the war, you would no longer be worthy to be Kinkou. You had to remember that the cause you were tasked with was more important, even as your heart wavered. You had made your choice, and you were too scared to throw away everything you had worked so hard for.

“It was incredible, Shen!” you told your friend the day after you had returned from a mission to solve a conflict between a water spirit and a nearby village. “I never knew how many types of spirits there are out there.”

Shen nodded, expression flat, but you knew him well enough to know that this was just how he was normally. Chasing Khada Jhin had changed him just as it had changed Usan. The playful and happy boy you had seen around the monastery when you were younger had become somber and serious as he fulfilled his Kinkou duties. With Usan gone, he would follow his father’s path and become the next Eye of Twilight. But neither of you had anticipated that Shen’s succession would come so soon, or so tragically.

You were both surprised by a young assistant’s cries for help as he ran towards you. A heavy seriousness overtook the atmosphere around you as the boy, crying and stumbling, made his way to you. You were at a loss for words, unsure of what could have caused the boy to act like he was fleeing for his life.

Shen stepped forward first to meet the boy. “Yushin, what has happened?”

Yushin sniffled loudly, wiping a hand across his eyes as he tried desperately to calm himself down. “Master Kusho, he… he…”

Your blood felt frozen in your veins; had something happened to Master Kusho? You quickly made your way to Shen’s side.

“It’s okay,” you consoled the boy as you leaned down towards him. “Just tell us what’s going on.”

Yushin nodded, swallowing nervously before speaking. “Mister Usan came to the temple. He wanted the shadow magic box, but Master Kusho said no.”

You had a bad feeling about where this story was going, but you didn’t dare interrupt, Shen staying deathly silent as well, his hands clenched tightly into fists.

“Master Kusho went to stop him and he… he killed Master!” Yushin wailed. “Some of the other masters are fighting them, but they’re so strong…”

Shen wasted not a second more, sprinting towards the temple at the top of the mountain. With one rushed nod to the boy, you followed right after Shen, hoping that you wouldn’t be too late.

You had hoped to see Usan again, but couldn’t have dreamed that it would be under these circumstances. You knew that Usan had wanted the Kinkou’s secret magic to be used against the invading Noxians; he had told you as much the last time you had seen him. But to kill Master Kusho in order to take the Tears of the Shadow… this new image of Usan was so different from the man you knew that you were having a hard time believing that what Yushin was saying was true.

But the scene at the temple extinguished any hope you had left in your heart. People were running down the stairs, fleeing for their lives, while others fought against men in grey and red outfits, grey masks concealing their faces. Looking at the masked men, you wondered if one of them was Usan.

But looking at the steps leading up to the temple, you realized that you had bigger problems. Masters and apprentices alike were fleeing, but not everyone was so lucky. Bodies dotted the stairs of those who had tried to fight and failed, and had lost their lives for their efforts.

You rushed to your fallen comrades, hoping to find someone still alive. Finding no pulse, you were forced to move onto the next person as fighting still raged on all around you. Just as you were feeling almost too despondent to go on, you finally found a pulse on the fifth person you had approached, one of the older apprentices that you vaguely remembered seeing around before. You immediately tapped into your magic, a soft yellow glow engulfing your hands as you began working to save this man’s life.

You didn’t know where Shen was, or what he was doing. You hoped that he would be okay, but you couldn’t look away from the man in front of you, afraid that any break in your concentration would result in this man losing his life. Shen would be okay, you knew he would.

Eventually, the sounds of fighting dulled as you worked, sweat breaking out on your arms and face from the physical and mental stress that you were under. After what felt like an eternity, your work finally paid off; the man’s wound had closed at last, and even though he had lost a lot of blood, he would pull through.

As soon as you pulled your hands back, it felt like the flow of time had started again. Your exhaustion caught up with you immediately and you nearly collapsed on the spot, breathing heavily from the energy you had exerted, leaving you feeling boneless.

Looking around, you felt like you had found yourself in the pits of hell. The stairs were peppered with bodies, the blood of the victims running down the stairs and staining them red. Sorrow was heavy in the air, the survivors still in disbelief.

The Kinkou had not been decimated; the loss of life, while sad, was not as great as it could have been. It looked like those who had run were not pursued, but those who had fought Usan and his men had been killed. They had come here for the box of ancient shadow magic, and had taken out anyone who stood in the way of their objective.

You were unsure of what to do next. Those who had lived were long gone, and with how much time and energy you had spent healing the one man, you knew that you would be of little use in recovering the stolen Kinkou artifact. You weren’t even fully confident in your ability to stand with how exhausted you were.

You didn’t know how long you kneeled beside the unconscious man, but you were startled into awareness by a hand on your shoulder. Craning your neck to look up, you saw the face of a man with short brown hair who you recognized as a member of the Order.

“He’s okay,” you said softly, looking down at the unconscious man’s bloody clothing. “I was able to heal him in time.”

“I will bring him back to the monastery,” the man replied, voice almost frighteningly steady. “You should go and rest.”

You looked back up at him in shock. “But the shadow magic… don’t we have to go get it back?”

He shook his head sternly. “That is not our decision to make. With Kusho dead, the duties of the Eye of Twilight fall to Shen now. For now, we must regroup and recover our strength, and then we will listen to Shen’s decision.”

Staring back down at your hands, you nodded. Reality was setting in on you at last; the leader of the Kinkou was dead, killed by the man you had once called your closest friend. And even if you wanted to, you did not possess the strength nor the skill to chase Usan and his men down. You weren’t even sure if you had the energy to walk down the long flight of stairs that led back down to the monastery.

Knowing your short conversation was done, the man picked up the unconscious man before you and then began to head down the stairs. You watched his back for a short moment before heaving yourself to your feet and beginning to stagger your way down the stairs.

You walked by the blood, by the bodies that still lay on the stairs, their spirits already long gone. You could only hope that they hadn’t suffered too greatly in their last moments. You forced yourself onwards; it would do nobody any good for you to collapse in a heap here, least of all you. You just wanted to collapse into your bed and try to sleep off the horror of the last hour.

You didn’t see Shen anywhere, unsure of where he had gone. But you knew that you would see him eventually. Shen was very strong, so you had no doubts that he had survived the attack. Although you were still struggling to believe that Master Kusho was truly dead. It hurt your head to try and make sense of all that had happened, and you found yourself unsure of what the immediate future would look like for the Kinkou Order.

Finally getting to the bottom of the stairs, you looked out at the road back to the monastery, the clamor reaching your ears easily despite the distance. Understandably, the Kinkou were in a panic, and you stopped in your tracks as you stared at the mess of people running around. For such a normally calm place, the commotion felt deeply unsettling. Deaths happened within the Kinkou, as dealing with demons and restless spirits was never completely risk-free, but to lose the head of the Kinkou in such a tragic and unexpected way had left the Kinkou on unsteady ground.

You would not be able to sleep with how loud the monastery was right now, even as tired as you were. You found your attention drawn instead to the forest just ahead of you, feeling drawn towards the small path between the trees that led to your old training spot. The spot where you and Usan had spent most of your time together.

Maybe going there would give you the peace that you desperately needed right now. The Usan that would kill Master Kusho and steal a relic seemed so foreign to the boy you had known for so long. Could a year have really changed him so much?

No, you thought as you walked down the grassy path, Usan had begun to change long before he had left. The hunt for Khada Jhin had changed him, and as much as you didn’t want him to leave the Kinkou, you knew that you had to let him go. But after today, you were at a loss, worried for your lost friend.

Even though he had killed Master Kusho, stolen a Kinkou artifact and slain your fellow Order members, you couldn’t help but want to see him. To ask him why he had done this. Even if it was a futile effort, you wanted to see him so badly.

Though it pained you to admit it, you felt like you had truly lost him for good today. You had been nursing a hope that one day he would return to the Kinkou, to _you_. But with this act, he would never be welcomed back. He was not just a deserter of the Kinkou, but now an enemy. Your soul cried as you forced yourself to keep walking as you were forced to accept the fact that you would never stand by Usan’s side again.

The clearing looked the same as it had a year ago. It felt strange to be here after so long. For a year, you had told yourself that coming back here would be too painful, but now it was the only place that you wanted to be. You just wanted to feel like your life was simple again, like how it had been when you and Usan had sparred here together in secret.

You approached the largest tree in the clearing, the one that you used to use as an opponent before you and Usan had started training together. You ran your hand over the little scratches and bumps on the bark of the tree, closing your eyes and allowing yourself to think of the past.

Your fingers hit an especially-jagged section of bark, and you opened your eyes, looking at the intricately-carved symbol before you. You traced the pattern of lines that made up the peace rune, mind drifting back to the day that Usan had showed you how to carve it. It had been carved almost ten years ago, but still held its shape perfectly. Even though you knew any magical effects from such a small rune wouldn’t go far, you couldn’t help but feel bitter that the peace rune had done no good today in regards to the attack on the temple.

You were about to take your hand off of the rune when you were startled by a larger hand being laid over yours from behind. Alarmed, you jolted backwards into a firm chest with a muted cry. The man behind you didn’t say a word, allowing you to rip your hand out from under his and spin around to face him. Raising your hand to strike out, you frozen in your tracks as you stared in shock at the man that stood before you.

You recognized him immediately, but that didn’t mean that his appearance hadn’t changed. It had only been a year, but he had grown broader than he used to be, his form taking up most of your field of vision. His hair was different too; when you had last seen him, it had been much longer than your own, wound in a tight braid. But now it had been cut short, bangs he hadn’t had before hanging down over his forehead.

You had thought that seeing Usan would scare you after what he had done. But looking at him now, all you could think about was how handsome he had become. Why had you never noticed before?

You stared at each other as you tried to get a read on what he was thinking. But his face was blank, as if he was too drained right now to show any emotion. You knew that you were nearly at that point yourself.

“Usan… why are you here?” you whispered, and he shook his head minutely, not breaking eye contact with you.

“I don’t use that name anymore,” he replied quietly. “I am now called Zed.”

Your tired brain took the information in slowly. It did make sense that he would stop using his Kinkou name, given that he had left the Order, but the new name left you with only more questions. But given that this was not the first time he had told you of a name change, you knew that there were more important queries that you wanted answers for first.

It was hard to force yourself to say the words, but you needed to know. “Did you really kill Master Kusho?”

He said nothing in reply, his stony gaze flitting away from you and telling you as much as his words could have. So it was true. You couldn’t help the anger that surged up within you as you stared at his face.

“How could you do this, Usan?” you questioned angrily. “He used to be your master, and you–”

“I did what I had to,” Zed interrupted you, voice sounding resolute as he stared down at you. “The Kinkou have the tools to win the war against Noxus, and they intended to squander them while innocent Ionians die. With this power, I can save our people!”

“He was Shen’s father!” you appealed emotionally. “And the leader of the Kinkou. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Not enough to let all of Ionia die,” Zed retorted, anger bleeding into his voice. “We needed the Tears of the Shadow, and I did what I had to in order to get it.”

Your head was spinning from his blunt words. He clearly didn’t regret killing his previous master, as long as it got him what he wanted. But if he had got what he wanted, then why was he here? Why had he come to you now after going a full year without seeing you even once?

“…why are you here?” you asked softly.

His face relaxed at last, most of the tension leaving his face as you stared at him, waiting for an answer. Your back was still against the tree, caged in by Zed’s body, but you weren’t afraid. Not of the boy you had known for most all of your life. But his reluctance to answer your question made you want to push his buttons, do whatever you had to do to get him to tell you what you wanted to know.

“Are you here to kill me too?” you asked him, careful to keep your voice neutral.

His brown eyes went wide, expression looking like you had slapped him. The hurt in his eyes made you feel bad for saying what you had, but you didn’t have a choice. You needed answers from him.

“…no,” he answered at last.

“Why not?” you pressed. “You killed Master Kusho. What makes my life any different to you?”

“You’ve always been different!” he growled lowly, and the emotion in his voice caught you off guard.

You didn’t know what to say to that, but he didn’t give you a chance to say anything as he leaned in towards you, flattening your back against the tree as he slotted his mouth against yours. He closed his eyes immediately, but yours remained open with shock. While you remained frozen, Zed’s tongue slipped into your mouth, and you found your eyes fluttering closed as you relaxed into the kiss at last.

You were panting softly as he finally pulled back from you, realizing with embarrassment just how much you had enjoyed kissing him, even knowing what he had done. The moment was not meant to last, as his next words felt like ice water being poured on your skin.

“I wanted you to join my order.”

“Your order…?” you replied shakily.

“The Noxian invaders have to be stopped, and I have created my own order that isn’t bound to archaic notions of balance. I intend to protect Ionia, no matter the cost,” he explained passionately, a fire burning in his eyes.

You knew your answer as soon as he had asked you to join him, the words feeling like they were tearing you in two.

“I can’t,” you spoke quietly, and Zed’s face fell as you continued. “The Kinkou have lost their leader. And even if I agree with your goal, you still killed Master Kusho.”

“I see,” he replied simply.

You looked down, unable to look at him any longer as guilt burned in your chest. You both knew that this moment had to end, as he had to return to his order, and you to yours. You knew it would be selfish to try and keep him here, no matter how much you didn’t want to lose him again.

“Please stay safe,” you implored him, voice wavering and eyes closing.

He didn’t reply, and even though you hadn’t heard a sound, you knew he was gone. Sinking to the ground, you leaned back against the tree, pulling your knees to your chest as you once again mourned the loss of your dearest friend.

You allowed yourself the moment of peace that you had come here seeking, only now you had even more on your mind. The silence around you now just felt suffocating, nothing around to distract you from the things you desperately didn’t want to confront within yourself.

It was with great dread that you had to acknowledge that Usan… that Zed wasn’t completely wrong in his ideals. You had been holding doubts in your heart ever since he had left the Kinkou.

Everything you had ever heard about Noxus made it impossible for you to not know of their brutality. They would kill anything and anyone in their pursuit to conquer other lands. There was no doubt that their invasion had cost many Ionian lives already.

You wanted to be devoutly Kinkou and stay dedicated to maintaining balance without distraction, but you couldn’t. You realized that now. You could no longer delude yourself into believing that the Kinkou notion of balance was always right and just.

The Kinkou had the power to help push the Noxians back, but refused to help the people of Ionia unless spirit and man were imbalanced. For the first time, you found yourself thinking that the Kinkou were wrong. After all, would there even be an Ionia for the Kinkou to operate in if Noxus conquered the land due to their refusal to help?

It was with a heavy heart that you realized that you could no longer be a member of the Kinkou, not after you had realized how deeply unsatisfied you had become with the doctrine. It was all that you had ever known, the only family that you could remember, but you would have to leave it all behind.

But at the same time, you could not join Zed and his shadow order. Even if you agreed with why he had killed Master Kusho, he had still taken an innocent life. You could not join forces with someone who almost acted no better than a Noxian, killing to take things that did not belong to him. You could only hope that Shen would forgive you for the decision you felt that you had no choice but to make.

You stayed around as a last service to the Kinkou. There were many injuries to be healed, and procedures to follow to formally declare Shen as the next Eye of Twilight. But beyond that, Shen needed you right now. His father had just died, and now responsibilities were being thrown at him left and right. He never uttered one word of complaint, but you knew that he was struggling.

It took months for the Kinkou to recover from the great loss it had been dealt, but eventually things began to return to normal. As Shen got used to his new role and the Kinkou adapted, you knew that your time was running out. You could not use the Kinkou as a crutch forever, and it was that thought that brought you to see Shen in his room.

“You wish to leave?” Shen asked knowingly before you had a chance to stay anything.

“How did you–”

“I have known you for many years,” Shen answered. “And you have been especially restless since Usan killed my father.”

Your eyes went wide with shock. You hadn’t expected him to talk about his father’s death so bluntly; you hadn’t mentioned it to him at all for fear of upsetting him, but here he was bringing it up on his own.

You hung your head in shame, Shen’s hand coming to rest on your shoulder. You slowly looked back up at him, finding a softer look on his face than you expected.

“Everyone has their own path. I cannot fault you if yours no longer lies with the Kinkou,” he said, nothing but respect in his expression.

“I’m sorry,” you said, the words coming out before you could stop them as the guilt that you felt bubbled up to the surface. You just felt so guilty for leaving after all the Kinkou and Shen had done for you.

“Stop worrying,” he said gently, but firmly. “The Kinkou will not end with your departure. You must do what is right for you. I have no right to stop you.”

You knew that was as nice of a goodbye as you could have gotten from the serious man. You knew this was what you needed to do, but it didn’t make it any less hard to leave your friend behind.

“Thank you,” you said, feeling choked with emotion as you leaned over to hug Shen, your arms not able to fully wrap around his large frame. Shen’s arms came up to awkwardly return your embrace, his hands on your back.

“I wish you luck, my friend.”

You had felt like a lost soul for a while as you had wandered to the north of Thanjuul in search of a new place to belong. You journeyed through towns, exploring the world outside the Kinkou that you had never experienced before. You were having a hard time shaking your feelings of being a fish out of water away, but now that you had seen Ionia as it was, you knew that you had made the right decision to leave the Kinkou.

Your search for belonging took you to Shon-Xan in Northern Ionia, to a village along the coast. You had been in town for only a day when a small band of Noxians decided to siege the small village, confident that their skill could best those in the peaceful village.

The screams had alerted you to trouble on the shores, and you had rushed to join the few capable men and women who attempted to drive the invaders back. You had experienced fighting demons and unruly spirits, but this was your first time fighting against other humans in a life-or-death situation. But even without that experience, you had been in training for many years, and it showed. The cocky Noxians were no match for you.

You drove the invaders back easily, not one of them escaping with their lives. You were initially conflicted taking the lives of other humans, but seeing innocent villagers barely escaping with their lives told you that you were doing the right thing. These people needed your help, and you were more than willing to provide it. This was it. You had found your meaning.

The village was smaller than others on the coast, so it was a lower-priority target for the Noxians, but that did not mean that you were entirely safe. Any invaders that tried to conquer the village were swiftly met with the blade of your daggers and the might of your Kinkou-learned magic.

As the invasion continued to rage across Ionia, you found yourself travelling to the more war-ravaged areas of Shon-Xan to help fight the Noxian armies that sought to conquer. The life of a wandering warrior was not easy, and you fell into an exhausted sleep more days than not, but it was worth it to you to protect the land that you had lived in all of your life.

It took years for the war to subside, the land ravaged and many lives lost in the conflict. You had lived with your focus narrowed on the war for so long that you found yourself again unsure of what to do at war’s end. Ionia was no longer at war, but there was now an internal conflict rising between those who wanted Ionia to go back to its pacifistic roots and those who wanted to unite Ionia as a militaristic power to ward off any potential invasions in the future. You wanted no part of the debate; you weren’t a leader, and didn’t intend to insert yourself into Ionian politics now.

You had been floundering when an acquaintance from your time in the war offered you the chance to travel with her from Shon-Xan to the Ionian island of Ralin to the east. You had started out doing small jobs in exchange for the money you needed to survive, but eventually your reputation as a war hero began to earn you more notice, and with that came more opportunities.

You found yourself drifting between the Ionian islands and the mainland as you took on various jobs. You exterminated deadly beasts, escorted important people to their destinations, recovered stolen items, and whatever other requests caught your attention.

When your life had gotten a little less hectic, you had made a decision to send a letter to Shen, hoping that he had survived the war and remained at the old Kinkou temple in Thanjuul. A return letter arriving for you a few weeks later was the relief that you needed; Shen was okay, and the Kinkou had survived. You were happy to hear from your old friend, and began to exchange letters when you had the time between jobs.

It was hard for you to believe sometimes that it had been ten years since you had been a member of the Kinkou, and since you had seen Shen or Usan. You had heard whispers of the operations of the shadow order that Usan had created, but had never run into them yourself. You still found yourself calling him Usan in your head; the name Zed just felt unnatural on your lips, like it was meant for a stranger, and not the man you had known for most of your life.

As much as it pained you to admit it, Zed was a stranger to you now. You hadn’t sought him out, and would have no idea what you would say to him now. It felt so foreign to you that you used to be able to talk to him for hours, but now not a word came to mind when you pondered what you would say if you ever saw him again.

Luckily, the opportunities you had to dwell on Zed were few and far between with how busy you had been lately. There had been an increase in bandit attacks lately, and you now found yourself walking along a path towards Kotha in the Ionian province of Zhyun. You had been pushing yourself too hard lately; the bandits sieging the nearby town of Thonx had taken you longer than you had thought to dispatch. You could only hope that there would be an inn in Kotha with an open room for the night.

It was due to your tiredness that you didn’t notice the trouble until it was too late. You had just approached the start of a short bridge over the Sotka River when you finally noticed the two figures standing on the bridge, and the screams of the man that they were dangling off the bridge by a rope.

You froze in place; you didn’t normally make a habit of intervening in gang situations unless you were asked to, but at the same time, you were now too close to avoid being seen as one of the people on the bridge turned towards you. It was too dark for you to see detail in the faces of the two people, and you slowly reached down to the dagger at your side as one of the figures began to approach you as the other continued to hold the rope.

You let out an annoyed exhale as you got into a battle stance. You really didn’t want to fight when you were already tired, but you had no choice. Gangsters didn’t tend to be lenient with witnesses to their crimes, but at the same time, you refused to die here for such a stupid reason.

You were more than ready when the man came within your striking range, flipping behind him and pressing one of your daggers to his neck.

“I have no interest in your business,” you hissed sternly. “I will continue on this path and you can continue whatever it is you were doing.”

The man stayed silent and still, which confused you until his companion on the bridge spoke up.

“Shen!” a woman’s voice cried out from the bridge, and your hand went lax, allowing the man in front of you to gently grasp your hand and remove the dagger from being pointed at his neck before turning to face you.

“…Shen?”

He was older, but his face had not changed beyond recognition. His hair was up in a topknot, the sides of his head shaved. The biggest change in him was his eyes; they were all-white, a product of his elevation to the Eye of Twilight. It was jarring to not see his brown eyes anymore, but he could clearly still see, as he recognized you as well, gently speaking your name in response.

“Shen!” you cried happily, feeling like you had been transported back to your past as you stared at his face. But just as quickly, concern began to bubble up in your mind. “What are you doing here?”

Shen’s expression hardened again, but he was interrupted before he could answer by the cries of the man dangling from the bridge.

“Please, I’ll tell you! Just let me up!” he shouted, struggling on the rope. Looking around the side of the bridge told you that he was being suspended just above circling carnivorous fish, and suddenly the desperation in his cries made more sense.

The man began to start listing odd names as the woman fished a scroll out of a waist bag and began to scribble on it. Sensing that it was better to leave her to what she was doing, you turned your focus back to Shen, one eyebrow raised as you waited for his explanation.

“Khada Jhin has escaped.”

 _What?_ You blinked, having a hard time processing Shen’s words. Khada Jhin had been in prison for so long, how could he have escaped now? He would have to have been helped by someone. But the only people who knew where Jhin had been imprisoned were Shen, Usan and Master Kusho. And with Master Kusho dead, and Shen on Jhin’s trail, that left only one possibility that twisted your stomach in knots.

“Usan came to inform me of Jhin’s escape,” Shen added.

“So it wasn’t…” you trailed off, but Shen understood where you had been going with your words.

“Zed may have informed the wrong person of Jhin’s location, but I do not believe that he freed Jhin himself,” he answered.

You felt immediately relieved, but hated yourself for it. You hated the way that you still wanted to believe the best in Usan, even after what he had done to Master Kusho. You wanted to believe that Usan was not capable of releasing one of the most prolific serial killers in Ionia back into the world. But if it wasn’t Usan, then who? What reason could someone have to free such a vicious monster from its cage?

Strangled cries drew your attention back to the bridge to see the woman pulling the rope back up, the dangling man desperately trying not to squirm too much and end up falling into the water. At last, he was pulled back up and onto the bridge, the woman severing the rope with a dagger.

“I hope that all your information is right, for your sake,” she told the man with very casual menace.

The man didn’t even reply, scrambling to his feet without bothering to properly remove the rope from his ankles, stumbling on rope as he ran off the bridge and away from the woman.

Grinning in satisfaction, the woman approached you and Shen, holding the scroll in her hand. Now that she was closer, you were able to get a better look at her. She was younger than you and Shen, her dark hair tied up with a green cloth that matched the rest of her outfit. Wispy tattoos swirled up one of her arms, and sharp kama blades hung at her side. You weren’t sure who she was; no memories of this girl came to mind.

“Got the list,” she told Shen, a satisfied smile on her face. “Men will tell you anything when you dangle them over man-eating fish!”

She was talking to Shen, but you noticed her curiously looking you over, just as you had been doing to her. Shen looked between you before stepping back up to allow you and the girl a better look at each other.

“This is my former student, Akali,” Shen introduced, Akali giving you a short wave, but remaining on her guard.

You offered her your name in return with a smile. You hadn’t known that Shen had taken on a student; he hadn’t mentioned her in any of his letters.

“She can be trusted, Akali,” Shen told her, aware of his student’s wariness. “She was once a member of the Kinkou.”

“Oh,” Akali replied with a nod. “And you told her about, uh…”

“Yes, I told her of Jhin’s escape,” Shen answered.

Akali’s demeanor shifted at once, a friendly smile gracing her face. “Alright, so no need for secrets then. You coming with us to hunt Jhin down or what?”

Shen looked sternly at his former apprentice. “She did not come here to be burdened with our cause.”

“Wait,” you interjected. You had already made up your mind the second he had mentioned Jhin’s escape. “I want to help. I just finished a job, and I won’t be able to relax with that monster on the loose.”

Shen’s face was blank, and you fixed him with a frown. “I haven’t just been sitting around all these years. Let me help you recapture Jhin.”

Akali was easier to sway as she made her way to your side, holding her paper out so you could get a look at the unusual names written on it. “Any of these names sound familiar to you? Jhin was on one of these ships this month, and we need to find out which one.”

You were surprised at the lead Shen and Akali had managed to procure on the so-called golden demon as you walked around a marketplace in Kotha asking for any information on a deadly incident on a ship where sixteen people were noted as being killed by a demon. As Khada Jhin always killed in units of four, there was no other conclusion to come to in regards to the culprit.

So far, you had very little luck with the traders at the marketplace. Many had heard of the deaths of Lord Jaetha and his family on that ship, but had no further information, simply expressing their horror or disbelief at the brutality of the incident. In short, you were getting nowhere fast. You could almost feel the leads on Jhin’s whereabouts escaping you like they were grains of sand between your fingers.

“Hey,” you spoke up after quite a while of remaining silent, Shen and Akali looking over at you. “I’ll go ask the merchants on the south side. We’ll never be done by sundown if we stay in a group.”

They accepted your reasoning fairly easily, and you split from them with a promise to meet again after you had finished your part of the information gathering. Wishing each other luck, you departed to the south, heading down the street at a normal pace before ducking into an alleyway at the next turn. You did intend to do your part in questioning the merchants, but you also had one other matter of business to attend to.

The war with Noxus had sharpened your senses, and your more recent work had honed them further. From the moment you had begun to question the merchants, you had been feeling eyes on your group. You had spent the next hour taking careful glances around, trying to pinpoint your apparent stalker, and had only just noticed a figure in maroon clothing that seemed to always be in the same area of the market as you were.

You could only take very quick glances at the person, not wanting to tip them off by being too obvious. Their robes covered their body, an adjoining headscarf covering their head. You couldn’t even tell if the figure was a man or a woman, or guess why they were following your group.

You didn’t seem to be their main focus, as you peeked your head out of the alleyway to see them continuing to follow behind Shen and Akali. As you stared at the figure, your thoughts began to turn to darker possibilities. Could this be Jhin himself? You had never seen what Jhin looked like, so you couldn’t be sure, but the figure was hiding themselves too well in the marketplace to be a petty thief. They had to be a professional of some kind, and you just hoped it wasn’t Jhin; the marketplace was crowded at this time of day, and there would be a lot of victims if Jhin was to set his sights on causing trouble here.

As you watched Shen and Akali continue down the isle of stalls, you formulated a plan. You walked down the alleyway, checking that it opened up to the next isle of shops before darting over to a stall selling colorful fabrics. Purchasing some cloth, you retreated back to the shadows of the alley.

You quickly wrapped the cloth around your head, allowing the excess fabric to hang over you like a poncho. If the person was following Shen and Akali, then they had also seen you. If you were going to be able to surprise them, then you would have to make sure that they didn’t see you coming.

You positioned yourself by the stall nearest to the alley, which happened to be a vendor of fine beads and crafted jewelry. You perused the vendor’s stock, keeping your real focus on the entrance to the isle, waiting for your target to arrive.

You watched as Shen and Akali entered into your scope of vision, unaware that they were being tailed. You waited a few minutes longer, and then there was no doubt in your mind as the figure in red entered the isle of stalls. There was no way that the figure’s movements could be a coincidence at this point, which solidified your resolve. You would not allow this person to hunt your friends, or the unsuspecting townspeople.

You asked the merchant about her beads, acting as if you were just an interested customer, all the while tracking the figure with your eyes. Shen and Akali went about their business, and you looked down to examine a jade bracelet, your hood falling over your eyes as they came to question the lady running the stall.

“I did hear tell of that,” the old woman answered. “Just awful. Lord Jaetha has always been good to the people here. I pray he found peace in death.”

“Alright, thanks for your time,” Akali replied, and you could easily hear the frustrated undertones in her voice. They must still have been having no luck.

Off they went to the last stall on the other side of the isle, and you looked over to see the figure much closer than they were before. From this distance, you could at least tell that it was a man from the way he was built. Not a good sign for your Jhin theory, but it gave you an idea on how to go about accosting the mysterious stranger.

If you tried to fight him here, you would attract too much attention to yourself, not to mention potentially endanger the people in the marketplace. This time, you would have to use a more covert approach; one that wouldn’t alert the man to what you actually were until you had confirmed his identity. If you acted as a simple escort, then you could suss out his identity while keeping yours to yourself until the moment was right.

Shen and Akali left the isle at last, and you finally broke away from the jewelry vendor to stand against a wall by the alleyway, intending to drag the man in there with you as soon as he got close enough. You got lucky, as the man was walking on your side of the isle, making your job much easier. You kept your breath steady, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

As soon as his arm was within your range, you quickly grabbed his wrist, tugging him into the alleyway with you. Pressing him against the wall, you leaned your head up against his neck to avoid him seeing your face.

“You look lonely,” you said, purposefully speaking in a higher pitch than your normal voice. “I can keep you company… for a price.”

He didn’t seem to suspect anything was amiss as he gently pushed you away from him. “I’m not interested.”

That voice… you realized in an instant just how wrong you had been about the identity of your pursuer. You reached a hand up to remove his hood, desperate to confirm his identity, when you were stopped by his larger hand encircling your wrist to stop you in your attempt to reveal his face.

“Usan, please!” you cried out, and the man before you stiffened in surprise, his grip on your wrist softening enough for you to shake his fingers off and pull his hood back enough that you could see his face.

His hair was a little longer, and his eyes were a little darker, but there was no doubt that the man before you was Usan. Even ten years later, this man would never truly be a stranger to you. Seeing his face now, you realized just how much you had missed him. He still had that small scar running through one eyebrow, and was still a head taller than you at least. It wasn’t as if his scars or height could have changed since you had seen him, but you still found yourself surprised by how much his appearance had stayed the same.

You pulled your hand back from his hood at last with a wistful smile. “Sorry… I know your name isn’t Usan anymore.”

He stared down at you, and you noticed how weary he looked, like he had carried the weight of the world on his shoulders for too long. What had he been doing in the past ten years since you had seen him?

“Call me what you want,” he replied as he stared back at you.

He just looked so tired; it hurt your heart to see him like this. You could deny it all you wanted, but as you looked at Zed’s face, you knew that you had always carried a soft spot for him, no matter what he had done. It was why you could never truly turn your back on him; even now you found yourself wanting to comfort him, as badly as things had ended the last time you two had met.

You reached a hand up towards his face, placing it over his cheek. Zed seemed to welcome the contact, closing his eyes at your touch. You stayed like that for a moment, but a burst of chatter from the marketplace reminded you of why you were here.

“Zed… why are you following Shen?” you asked.

Zed’s brown eyes opened and the tender moment was lost as you pulled your hand back from his face.

“The only way to capture Jhin is if Shen and I join forces, but he refuses to work with me,” Zed explained, and you nodded.

“You can’t be too surprised by that after what happened,” you said sadly as you took a quick glance towards the end of the alleyway, where a child dashed in to retrieve a lost ball before running back out to play with his friends.

“No, I can’t blame him,” Zed answered with a sigh. “But Jhin is more than we can handle if we work separately. He’ll need my help to take Jhin down.”

You bit your lip, missing how Zed’s eyes followed the movement. You couldn’t deny that they were the only two people alive who had caught Jhin before, and had the best chance of catching him again. But even though you knew that, you also knew that you couldn’t convince Shen to work with the man that had killed his father.

You sighed, unsure if you were making the right decision or not. “I won’t tell him I saw you. But please be careful. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”

Zed looked away from you. “Jhin is dangerous. I will do what I have to for him to be stopped.”

“Usan!” Your angry voice brought his eyes back to yours. “I don’t want you to die!”

He had nothing to say to that, which only annoyed you more. Did he have no care for his own life in all of this?

Turning on your heel, you promptly exited the alleyway, heading towards the south side of the market to fulfil your part of the information gathering. So much had changed, and still Usan was as stubborn and reckless as he had always been. You only hoped for his sake that he would snap out of it before he really got himself killed.

Two days later, you had travelled to the town of Nanthee in search of the town’s elder, who likely possessed important information on why Lord Jaetha and his family were targeted by Jhin. But the lead was not meant to be; the day before you arrived in town, the elder and three others had been brutally murdered. The killings being in a group of four, there was no room to believe that there was any culprit but Jhin behind the deaths.

You knew that Zed had to be somewhere nearby, but you hadn’t been able to sense him since the day you had confronted him at the marketplace. Almost as soon as you had stormed off, you had regretted losing your temper. The first time you had seen him in ten years and you had ruined it with your big mouth. You would have to hope that you hadn’t severed that link forever.

You followed behind Shen into the building where the elder had been killed, Akali waiting outside at Shen’s urging. This was your first exposure to Jhin’s work, and it was somehow even more gruesome than you had imagined.

Four bodies, broken and mangled, lay in the entryway of the room, as if they had been fleeing to safety as they were killed. Grotesque vines wound around their bodies, the flesh of their faces peeled back in a gruesome likeness of a flower. If this was only a fraction of what Jhin was capable of, then you feared for all of Ionia.

Shen approached the bodies with you close behind as you set about tending to the corpses. Their skin felt cold and stiff to the touch, as if you were dealing with broken puppets, not people who had been alive the day before. You couldn’t allow a maniac like this to be free. Jhin had to be stopped at all costs, or tragedies like this would continue to happen.

You found yourself glad to have experienced the brutal nature of war, because otherwise you likely wouldn’t have been able to stomach the gore that you were working with now. By the time you had finished burying the bodies, you were feeling weary in spirit, hoping that those people would be the last victims of the golden demon before he was caught. But it would not be easy to catch Jhin; you were too experienced to be that naïve about the reality of the situation.

“I hope we can stop him,” you said, speaking the first words that either you or Shen had spoken since you had buried the victims.

Shen looked over at you. “Behind his demonic cruelty, he is still a man. I intend to make sure he is imprisoned once more before anyone else dies.”

You looked forward to see a group of men in blue standing around just outside the building that you had been in. You had almost forgot; Shen had requested members of the Kinkou to accompany the investigation, and they were likely waiting for a debrief from their leader regarding the bodies of Jhin’s newest victims. It was easy to forget they were here with all that was going on, but you knew that Shen would want to speak with them.

“Take your time,” you told him. “I’ll go find Akali.”

You agreed to meet up afterwards, heading to go find Akali, who had wandered off somewhere. You found her fairly easily, wandering aimlessly around Nanthee.

“We finished with the bodies,” you told her.

She bit her lip. “Were they really as bad as Shen was saying?”

“Yes.” You didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat the truth with her. “We need to catch him before he can do that to anyone else.”

Your conversation was interrupted by a loud gong ringing through the port town. Looking over at Akali, she shrugged back at you. “Must be a ship leaving. They like to hit the gong four times when ships leave port.”

Sounded like a pretty typical port town custom to you. The gong rang out for the fourth time and then stopped, just as Akali had described. Just as you were about to suggest taking a walk around town to give Shen some time, something behind Akali caught your attention.

Loud explosions began to pierce the air along with screams that were abruptly cut off. Your eyes were drawn immediately to the lanterns that were strung up along all of the streets as you watched the lanterns down the road begin to detonate and explode.

“Akali, the lanterns are bombs!” you spoke hurriedly. “We need to run!”

Akali didn’t ask questions as the two of you began to sprint off the street and towards one of the large carved heads made of stone that were scattered around the town. You heard the explosions and felt the heat right behind you, but you didn’t stop running. You dove for the top of the stone head, Akali hot on your heels as you both ducked down and covered your heads as explosions continued to ring out all around you. You both stayed down on the ground until the explosions finally stopped, the town deathly quiet.

You stood up, dusting yourself off as you looked over to see Akali doing the same. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll live,” she groaned. “You?”

“I’m fine,” you replied. “We got out just in time. I can’t say the same for the townspeople though.”

“I’ll get him for this!” Akali promised angrily as some of Shen’s men joined you on the stone head.

“Hey, that ship!” Akali exclaimed, and you looked over at the port to see a ship sailing away. Akali turned to one of the Kinkou men. “Hey, where is that boat going?”

“To the port of Piltover,” the man answered, and you frowned.

“You think that Jhin…?”

“No doubt he’s on that ship,” she answered bitterly. “Who else would cause this much destruction and then run away like a coward?”

It was a bitter feeling, knowing that Jhin was within your grasp, only to escape across the sea after decimating most of the town. And you were still haunted by the knowledge that the person who had freed the demon was also out there somewhere. This whole affair was starting to reek of the Navori Brotherhood.

The Navori Brotherhood were the most fervent champions of the cause to unite Ionia and bring the land to military prominence. Their cause had only become more radical after the war, setting their sights on uniting Ionia under one rule… their rule. And they were willing to kill whoever they had to in order to achieve their goal.

It made so much sense. Your mind drifted back to a conversation days ago in the marketplace where a merchant had mentioned that Lord Jaetha had been firm in his opposition to the radical brotherhood. And then he and his family had all been killed.

Jhin was too chaotic to involve himself in Ionian politics… unless he owed a debt. He had to be acting at the command of the Navori Brotherhood; there was no other explanation for the targeted killings.

But while you knew the basic information about the brotherhood, that didn’t tell you much. It wasn’t as if there was anyone in Ionia who hadn’t heard of the Navori brotherhood. But any details that laid below the surface were scarce; you didn’t know the details of their operations, or even who their leader was. Or how they had learned of Jhin’s location, allowing them to free him.

There wasn’t a whole lot left of the town; buildings aflame, columns of smoke rising in the air. You didn’t notice many survivors, which was an unfortunate reflection of the careful planning that went into Jhin’s brutality. The only figures you noticed in the wreckage were Kinkou who roamed the wreckage, trying to find any survivors, with little luck.

Your attention was then drawn to the edge of the water as you noticed a silver-haired figure in red dragging a man in blue out of the water. You had forgotten all about Zed in the chaos, but there he was saving Shen from drowning.

Almost immediately, Shen was on his feet, sword drawn as he stood in a battle stance. You should have expected something like this to happen when the two men met again. No matter how much Zed wanted to work with Shen to capture Jhin, the wounds of their past were too hard for Shen to forgive.

As the two men fought, you found yourself scrambling down towards the beach, needing to get to them but unsure of what you would do when you got there. It took you much longer to get to them with all the fire and rubble in the way, but you pressed on.

Shen and Zed continued to fight as you made your way down, allowing you your first glimpse at Zed’s shadow magic as he disappeared into shadows and then reappeared elsewhere. You could tell that he had spent a long time mastering his shadow abilities, but Shen was no slouch in that regard either.

Shen fought fiercely, and despite Zed’s attempts to quell the fight, he was forced to defend himself. But Shen’s will was stronger, and your feet touched the sand just as Shen slammed Zed down into the ground. You approached the pair slowly, Shen now on his knees next to the unconscious Zed, tears in his eyes as he wept for the severed bond between them.

You were unable to speak up, your mouth feeling dry as you searched your mind for words that wouldn’t come. As you struggled with indecision, the remainder of the Kinkou that had come to Nanthee with you approached, and then Shen stood up at last.

You stared at him, but he wouldn’t meet your eyes as he instructed his men to bind Zed with chains and scrolls that nulled his magic. You weren’t sure what to think, but simply stood there as Shen announced his intentions to burn Zed’s shadow magic from his body and then throw him in prison. This certainly wasn’t the reunion you had expected, but at the same time, you could not stand in Shen’s way, not after what Zed had done to his father. You just wished that it didn’t have to hurt so much to see the former friends as fractured as they were.

After the bombing, it was decided that you would spend the night at the beach as it was getting dark and the burning rubble that was the town was still too treacherous to travel through. You helped to set up tents using supplies the Kinkou had brought along from their last camp that was just out of town. Along with the basic supplies, you watched as a wooden trailer was brought down the rocks, being pulled by two worax. The trailer was complete with high walls and a roof, and it didn’t take a lot of effort to guess what they planned to do with it.

You watched as two men picked up Zed’s unconscious body and brought him over to the trailer that had been set up away from the tents. While they chained Zed up by his wrists, his feet barely touching the floor, a third man set about pasting magic-nulling paper talismans inside and outside of the wooden trailer. It was a little hard for you to watch the scene, so you turned back to your work on the tents.

After you were done setting up camp, you began to assist the wounded, the sun having set long before you had finished. You were exhausted, but didn’t feel like you could sleep. By now, most of the Kinkou had retired to their respective tents, but you could only stare longingly at the wooden trailer that held Zed within it.

“You are not prohibited from seeing him.”

You inhaled sharply; you hadn’t noticed Shen approach you. You looked over at him to see his face looking impassive as usual. After you had stared at each other for a short moment, Shen turned to look at the makeshift jail cell.

“Usan is awake,” he told you. “I checked on him earlier.”

“…oh?” You tried not to sound too interested, but Shen easily saw through you.

“Usan is not connected to my past alone. It is not a betrayal for you to speak with him,” he insisted calmly.

“But I…” You struggled to finish your thought. You wanted to go see him, but you were nervous. With how your last conversation with him ended, would he even want to speak with you?

“Zed is hard to keep in one place. You will have no better chance than now,” Shen added.

He didn’t wait for you to reply, turning back to head towards his own tent. Even as nerves danced in your stomach, your feet began to take you closer to the innocuous-looking wooden trailer. The beach was so quiet that the sound of your breathing was all you could hear as you brought a hand up, intending to open the door, but lacking the courage to face him again.

You couldn’t throw this chance away. Shen was right; if you wanted to talk to Zed, then it would have to be now. It was certainly better to do it now when everyone else was sleeping and save yourself the unwanted attention from the Kinkou who slept just across the beach.

You couldn’t let yourself chicken out, grasping the door at last, pulling it open and climbing the single step up to enter into the trailer. You closed the door behind you, not wanting any lone Kinkou to see the door open and come to investigate.

You stiffened, hand still against the door as a weak laugh rang out from behind you. You slowly turned around, Zed waiting for you to look his way before speaking.

“I’ve been wondering when you would come,” he said, his voice dry and raspy.

There was no nice way to put it… he looked awful. Zed was chained to the ceiling of the trailer by his wrists, his shirt removed, allowing you a good look at the black tattoos that covered his shoulders and torso and gave him his shadow magic. Shen had clearly done a number on him in their fight; one of his eyes was swollen, the skin around it purple and bruised. His face and body were covered in cuts and bruises, and you knew the position that he forcibly found himself in now couldn’t possibly be comfortable for him.

You couldn’t free him, but you could ease his parched throat. Reaching into your bag, you pulled out your waterskin, approaching him and raising it to his mouth. He accepted the water, keeping his eyes on yours as he drank from it. You gave him all the water you had in the waterskin; you could get more to drink later, but he clearly couldn’t.

You found yourself distracted by a droplet of water that rolled down to his chin from his lips as you tried to think of what to say to him. Zed watched you, waiting for you to speak up first.

“You look bad,” you said at last, staring at his very obvious black eye.

He stared at you, expression flat. “That’s what you want to talk about?”

“It’s been a long time, Zed. I don’t know what to talk to you about after all these years,” you answered honestly. “We’re not the same people that we were when we were Kinkou.”

His eyes narrowed as you spoke. “You’re not Kinkou?”

Oh. You supposed that fact had yet to come up, but you had no reason to hide it from him. Even if he did hold any ill will towards you, he was securely chained and bound.

“I haven’t been a member of the Order in a long time. I left a few months after you attacked the temple,” you explained.

“But why would you…”

You sighed. “Because you were right. I couldn’t just abandon Ionia to soothe unruly nature spirits while Noxus was at our shores.”

He looked frustrated as he took the time to consider the new information. “You could have come to me.”

His voice was soft, but that didn’t make his words any less frustration for you. “How, Zed? I didn’t know where you went.”

“You could have left with me that day,” he insisted quietly.

You laughed humorlessly. “Did you forget that you asked me to come with you not even two hours after you killed Master Kusho?”

He didn’t reply, and you continued, the pent-up anger from wounds not fully healed becoming too much for you to hold back. “You left me without saying goodbye. For a whole year, I didn’t know if you were alive or dead, Usan! You didn’t even send one letter, and then you come back, kill Master Kusho and then try to pretend that we were like we used to be!”

You hastily wiped the few tears you felt pooling in your eyes with your sleeve. “You have Usan’s face, but I feel like I don’t know you anymore.”

You were getting too emotional. You were feeling entirely too exposed and vulnerable after your outburst, regretting lashing out at him almost immediately. Avoiding his eyes, you hastily retreated, exiting the trailer into the cold night air.

Running a hand through your hair as you tried to settle your nerves, you cursed your own actions. Your best chance to have a real talk with Zed and you had let your anger overtake you. As much as he was deserving of your ire, you should have kept your cool. You really needed to get a handle of your stubborn streak, you bitterly admitted.

You quietly crept into your tent, laying down under thin sheets and trying to sleep, but your thoughts kept drifting back to Zed. You were having trouble sleeping, but you weren’t strung up by your wrists. There was no way that sleep would come easily to Zed tonight, bound as he was. Your mind was troubled, but you didn’t have the physical impediments that were currently making it much more difficult for him to get any sleep.

You didn’t understand yourself; not even an hour ago you were yelling at Zed, but now you were feeling sorry for him. As much as you hated to admit it, your rationality all but abandoned you in the face of confronting your oldest friend. Maybe it was because you had known him for so long that you couldn’t fully condemn him now.

Some part of you had always felt something for him, and it was that part of you now that wanted to go back to that trailer and apologize for yelling at him. But your pride crushed any chance of that happening; you would see how you felt in the morning, and hope that you would have another chance to talk to him alone again. As you felt yourself slipping into sleep, you promised yourself that if that chance were to come, you wouldn’t allow your anger to rule you again.

The next day found you on the move, making your way out of the ruined town alongside the Kinkou. You had been silently walking at Shen’s side, your eyes looking ahead of you at Zed’s wooden cage. You hadn’t mentioned your conversation with Zed, and Shen hadn’t asked, not that you would know what to tell him anyways.

You were brought out of your thoughts by the sound of hoofbeats rapidly approaching. You looked to the side to see a rider in blue approaching you, or more specifically, approaching Shen. Shen stopped walking, signalling the rest of the Kinkou to do the same as the man on horseback came to a stop.

“A message for you from Akali,” the man said, removing a rolled-up scroll from his saddle bag and handing it down to Shen.

You had been wondering where Akali had gone, the last time you had seen her being after the town had been riddled with explosions.

Shen read the note quietly, re-folding it when he was done. After a nod from Shen, the messenger was on his way again, and you tried to catch Shen’s eye, your curiosity piqued.

Shen turned to you as he put the note in his pocket. “Akali has gone to Piltover in search of Jhin.”

“By herself?” you gasped. “That’s practically suicide!”

Shen’s serious expression told you that he agreed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “She is hasty, but she is not wrong. I must go to Piltover to find her before Jhin does.”

“…and Usan?” you asked as you both stared ahead at the wooden trailer.

Shen sighed. “Capturing Jhin is more important than my personal grudges. But if Zed wants to go after Jhin with me, he will have to do it my way. Jhin will be captured alive.”

You shook your head, knowing that Zed would not be happy about that, but it wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter. Shen needed Zed’s help, but it would be on his own terms. Shen was steadfast in his morals, and even Jhin would not cause him to falter.

“And you?” Shen asked. “Do you intend to travel with us to Piltover?”

You were flattered by the offer, and the underlying confidence Shen had in your skills, but you knew what you had to do.

“I can’t,” you answered. “It’s been bothering me… who freed Jhin?”

Shen’s eyebrows furrowed. “Zed keeps mentioning that. I can only wonder who it was he has told of Jhin’s location.”

“I need to find whoever freed Jhin,” you insisted. “Someone who would unleash that monster on Ionia… they’re as much of a danger as Jhin himself.”

“I wish you luck, my old friend,” Shen said after a moment of silence.

You smiled sadly. “You’ll probably need it more than me. Jhin is not an enemy to be taken lightly.”

“But not an enemy I can allow to continue to plague Ionia,” Shen added.

They would likely be leaving as soon as possible for Piltover, and you saw your window of opportunity closing. This wasn’t how you had intended to do things, but you had to go your own way, and didn’t want to leave any regrets behind.

“…before you free Zed, can I speak with him?” you asked quietly.

“I will go ready the horses,” Shen replied, giving you your answer implicitly.

You nodded as you both went your separate ways, and you noticed how the men guarding Zed’s prison seemed to all leave to busy themselves with other tasks as you approached the cart. You weren’t sure if you were embarrassed or grateful from Shen’s discretion, but for now, you intended not to waste this opportunity.

As much as you hated to think about it, you were both heading into very dangerous situations. You were going to be poking your nose where it didn’t belong, with people that would likely kill to protect their secrets, and Shen and Zed were going after the most brutal serial murderer in Ionia’s history. You knew there would be no sureties that you would all come back alive, which was all the more reason to bare yourself emotionally to Zed now.

You tucked some hair behind your ear, nerves creeping up on you as you were faced with the same wooden door from last night. The only difference between now and last night being that it was no longer dark, your eyes focussing on the patterns in the wood grain as you hesitated. Below all of his shadow magic and steely temperament, he was still the boy that had trained with you for years and given you the chance to be where you were now.

So why did you feel like a shy teenager confessing to a boy for the first time? You weren’t new to interacting with men; you had seduced men for your jobs before, and had met some men that you had liked as more than friends. But Usan was different to you, he had always been. You recalled him telling you the same thing ten years ago, right before he had kissed you.

You felt frozen with nerves, but you couldn’t keep Shen waiting. There was still a murderer on the loose, and Akali needed their help. You couldn’t waste everyone’s time with your indecision.

Zed looked the same as he had last night, save for his black eye, which was a deeper shade of purple than before. He stared at you as he stepped closer to him, trying to decide what to say with your limited time.

“…I missed you,” you said at last. “When you left the Kinkou, and for the past ten years.”

If this was potentially your last conversation with him, you would not let yourself get angry. You kept your voice calm, which seemed to surprise him. But you were determined that this time would be different to every other time you and Usan had parted; no matter what he had done, you would end this conversation with a smile on your face.

“I was bitter and dissatisfied,” he said, and you didn’t detect any anger in his voice. “And I made a selfish choice. You have every right to hate me for what I’ve done.”

“I know,” you replied. “But I can’t stay angry with you. You’ve done a lot of awful, stupid things, but you were also there for me when nobody else was.”

Zed sighed. “I saw a lot of myself in you back then. You wanted so desperately to serve the Kinkou that ignored your existence.”

You couldn’t help a laugh. “It was a little embarrassing to be a new apprentice in my early twenties when all of the other ones were eleven.”

“You never deserved that,” Zed growled with a frown and dark eyes. “The Kinkou were too stuck in their ways to appreciate the potential that you had.”

His unexpected defense of you warmed your heart. You had really missed talking with him like this, only wishing it could have happened under better conditions. But as you gazed at his face, feeling more at peace than you had in a long time, distant sounds of preparation from outside reminded you of your current situation.

“I intend to track down the person that freed Jhin,” you told him, watching closely as Zed’s jaw clenched ever so slightly. You wanted to know what the small change in his expression meant, but then his face went neutral again and you lost your opportunity to analyze him further.

Your nerve had never been higher, so you intended to make your move now. You moved closer to Zed, so close that you could feel his breath on your skin, his eyes brimming with intensity. You brought a hand up to his cheek, fingers trailing down a recent cut along his jaw. Zed didn’t flinch, unwilling to break his eyes away from yours.

“I know you’re going after Jhin,” you said, voice just above a whisper. “But I want you to make me a promise, Zed. If we both live through this, I want to see you without all of _this_. I don’t want you to leave me behind again.”

As you spoke, you leaned closer to Zed, now so close that your noses barely brushed. You didn’t miss the way he glanced down at your lips before looking back up to your eyes. Zed wasn’t stupid, he clearly understood your intentions, his eyes so dark with want that they were almost black.

“Well?” you prompted, fluttering your eyelashes playfully at him as you waited for a response from the bound man.

“Yes,” he said without delay. “I promi–”

You couldn’t wait any longer, holding his face still with one hand as you leaned in to kiss him. You were both so desperate for this, which was obvious by how quickly the kiss intensified. You were unable to help a moan, so quiet that only the two of you heard it, as Zed caught your tongue with his. Your head felt light as you continued to kiss, and you found yourself wishing that you had done this much sooner.

But Ionia needed you and Zed right now. As nice as this moment was, it had to end. It was with great frustration that you pulled away at last, nibbling gently on his lip as you went. His eyes opened at the same time as yours did, both of you breathing a little harder than you had before the kiss.

You sighed ruefully as you stepped back from him. “I’m holding you to that promise, Zed.”

You didn’t give him a chance to reply, turning and sauntering to the door, swinging your hips as you walked. You didn’t have to turn back to know his eyes were very likely on your ass, or at least you hoped that they would be for your effort to not be for naught.

Even knowing the danger that you would soon be walking into, you had a spring in your step as you climbed down the stairs and back down onto the dirt road you had been travelling on. Looking around, you saw Shen standing by a few horses and made your way over to him. Shen grabbed the reins of one of the horses, leading it up to you as soon as he noticed your approach.

“You got one for me too?” you asked, taking the proffered reins from him.

“We both have danger ahead in our paths,” he answered. “You may no longer be Kinkou, but you are still an important ally.”

His considerate nature made you smile. “I wish you luck, Shen. We’ll both need it.”

He nodded. “Jhin must be stopped, although I am under no delusion that this will be easy.”

You looked back over your shoulder at the lone wooden trailer. “Are you going to go and see him now?”

At Shen’s assent, you began to climb onto your horse. You felt like you had to leave before Zed was freed from his temporary cage; you knew that it would be harder to leave if you saw his face again. You would just have to hope that he would keep his promise and come find you after this was all over.

“Stay safe, Shen. I hope you can find Akali before she’s in under her head.”

Forcing a smile through your worry, you kicked your horse into motion and began to speed up the hill as Shen made his way over to Zed. You kept your focus on the road ahead of you, knowing you would need all of your focus on the arduous task you had assigned yourself.

Nothing was simple when you were dealing with the Navori Brotherhood. They were secretive, preferring to kill and intimidate from the shadows. For such a large and well-connected group, they left almost no tracks of their activities behind.

You had been travelling for weeks, following the tiniest hints that you were able to pick up, feeling like you were grasping at straws more often than not. Even with all your skill and experience, you were struggling to find the one clue that you needed to lead you to the person that had freed Jhin.

It was somewhat of a blow to your pride that your eventual lead came entirely by chance. You had taken to walking around towns at night, as that was when the brotherhood seemed to be most active. You had been unlucky that night, and had been heading back to your inn for the night when you finally got your lucky break.

“We know you’ve been supplying our opposition with coin. Did you think that the brotherhood wouldn’t discover your treachery?”

You froze in place as you made your way to the corner of the street that you were on, peering out from behind a wall to look upon the scene happening just around the corner. You observed men in all gray cornering a lone man against the dingy wall of an alleyway, the man against the wall stammering and shaking.

“I didn’t… I… I would never–”

“We don’t have time for your lies,” one of the men in gray hissed. “This is your only warning. You’ll be dead before we’ll have to ask again.”

The men wasted no more time, and you ducked back as they turned to head your way. You were narrowly able to hide behind an empty merchandise stand as the men passed by you, talking amongst themselves. Their voices were low and they passed by quickly, so you couldn’t hear much of what they were saying, but a brief mention of _heading back to the base_ was enough to catch your interest.

You waited until they were most of the way down the street before you crept out of hiding and began to trail after them. They didn’t seem to be anyone of a higher position in the organization, judging by how easy it was to trail them without being noticed. They walked towards the south exit, looking like they were heading out of town.

As you followed behind them, you began to organize your thoughts on the local geography of this part of Zhyun. If you were right, then this path out of town led towards the city of Kashuri. You hadn’t been there for years, but couldn’t recall any increased presence of the brotherhood when you had been there before. You followed the men for another hour, grateful for the cover of night masking your movements.

You were surprised when the men diverted from the path to Kashuri, seemingly headed towards the rocky, mountainous coast. You had never had any reason to travel this way before, so you were walking in blind. It wouldn’t be hard for you to believe that there could be a Navori Brotherhood base in such a remote location; nobody would really have a reason to travel this way, and if they did, the menacing men in gray would have them turning and fleeing for their lives.

Another hour later found you freezing in your tracks as you watched the men approach the tent-lined rocky cliff. It was just early enough in the morning that there was some light rising on the horizon, allowing you to see just how many tents there were. The tents were composed of dull gray-green fabric tied around warped, gnarled tree trunks, so white that it almost looked like they were made of bone.

It was early in the morning, so there weren’t many people out and about, but the sheer number of tents set up along the coast gave you a good idea of their numbers. But the size of their operations was then the least of your concerns as you looked past the tents to see a tall structure rising out of the fog. It looked to be a natural structure, a temple carved from rock and supported by more of the bonelike trunks. You could only see the top of the temple, the lower section lost in dense, swirling fog.

You were tired, having been awake for nearly a full day by this point, but you knew that you had to make your move now. You couldn’t afford to wait and give the whole brotherhood time to wake up. The decision to free Jhin had to have come from the top of the brotherhood, and you were sure that you would find the person you were looking for in the mountain temple. You knew that it would not be easy to confront the leader of the Navori Brotherhood, but it would be even harder if the entire base were awake.

You waited until the men you were following had retreated into their respective tents before you began making your way around the tents and towards the patch of thick fog. As you got closer, you noticed some smaller towers bordering the main temple. You quickly dashed into the fog, staying low to avoid being seen by any potential guards in the smaller towers.

While the fog helped to conceal you, it also worked against you. The farther you walked in the fog, the more you began to suspect that it was unnatural in natural. You could barely see two feet in front of you, and were forced to navigate yourself solely by moving towards the temple that towered out of the fog, as it was the only thing you could see clearly.

The area was deathly silent, but that didn’t mean that you were alone here. You kept vigilant, one hand in front of you to give you warning in case there were any obstacles in your path. There had been nothing for a while, until your palm finally hit something solid.

Feeling along the surface, you realized that you had finally found yourself at the base of the rock that led to the temple. Looking upwards, you could just barely see the peak of the temple, the fog so thick around you that most of your vision was heavily obscured. You carefully began to circle the building, eventually coming upon a steep set of stairs that would take you to the top of the mountainous temple.

You started to ascend the stairs, the fog beginning to thin out the higher up you went. You still didn’t see anyone around, but that didn’t mean that you could let your guard down. As you emerged from the fog, you looked out at the too-peaceful scene before you.

The top of the mountain was quiet, and would have been almost serene if you didn’t know that it was manned by the most violent terrorist organization Ionia had known in many years. A stone path bordered by green grass led up to a short set of stairs leading up to the temple itself. The opening to the temple was a large archway, but it was too far away for you to see inside the temple from where you stood. Looking around, you saw wildflowers growing in small patches, as well as a gently flowing fountain made of rock.

The temple itself was in stark juxtaposition to the tranquil area that surrounded it, made up of rocky walls and large bone-white tree trunks that climbed the walls of the temple like ivy. You were entranced by the grim temple, but your fascination proved a weakness as you took a step forward, only to be grabbed from behind.

Instantly, your battle instincts took over as you unsheathed one of your daggers, stabbing it into the shoulder of the man who had grabbed you, pulling it back out and flipping away from him. The man cried and dropped to one knee, clutching at his heavily-bleeding shoulder. He was dressed like the other men, a lower-level member of the brotherhood most likely.

Almost immediately, you found yourself surrounded by men in gray from every direction. Cursing your luck, you got into your usual battle stance and got to work. You didn’t give the men the opportunity to attack first, darting out at the man closest to you and slashing at his neck, forcing him to back up or face losing his head. Your initiation seemed to spur the men into action, as they all began to advance on you, weapons at the ready.

They had a distinct numbers advantage on you, but that didn’t mean that you were helpless. The men seemed to rely on brute strength, and were all packed with muscle, which you were able to exploit with your speed as you darted around them, dodging attacks while getting jabs of your own in.

Soon, the stone walkway was painted with the blood of the men, but still more came at you. You were confident in your own skills, but you were well aware that you couldn’t hope to best the entire Navori Brotherhood, even on your best day. Your downfall came too quickly for your liking, a shuriken clipping your shoulder and startling you enough for you to make a slight positioning error, one that your foes pounced on immediately, grappling you and tackling you to the ground, each of your limbs held down by one of the men.

A man with a bloody cut on his cheek and a slash across his collarbone leaned down towards you. “And what would a girl like you be doin’ here?”

You didn’t like the way he said the word _girl_ , but you didn’t intend to answer him either way. You glared at him, hoping that would send a clear enough message in the place of words.

“Well? Who wants to do it?” the man barked. “Ain’t no point in keepin’ her alive!”

You could do little but struggle vainly under the hold of the men, unable to move any more than a pinky finger. You looked around, desperately searching for anything that could help your current situation, but it was hard to see anything past the masses of men in gray. You had to be realistic about your chances of getting out of this, and things were not looking good.

You were considering your options when a voice rang out above the others from over the temple entrance.

“Stop!”

You assumed that the man who had called out was a higher rank than the group of men that surrounded you, because they froze immediately in place without question. Just who was it that had called out? You could hear the voice, but you couldn’t see the man, your vision blocked by the men that surrounded you.

“Bring her here!” the man demanded. “Our lord wants to see her!”

You were hauled to your feet and dragged towards the temple as you continued to try and access your options. You had no idea what this lord of theirs could want with you. The Navori Brotherhood did not waste time idly, so there had to be some reason for their leader to want to see you, but you couldn’t fathom what that reason could be. If they wanted to interrogate you, that could easily have been done by someone of lower rank. So why would the leader go to the trouble of meeting with you themself?

You didn’t bother resisting; there were too many men surrounding you to make escape easy, and besides, you couldn’t allow yourself to pass up this chance to discover the identity of the person that had ordered Jhin freed from his prison. So you went along with the men, unsure of what exactly it was that you were heading towards.

You were dragged through the large archway that led into the temple, finding yourself in an entryway of sorts, the walls bare except for the usual deathly white branches that wound their way up the walls. The room you were in was small and led to another room farther in, although all you could see in the room ahead of you was what looked to be the beginnings of a staircase.

When you arrived at the entrance to the next room, the men let go of you at last, tossing you into the room. You landed roughly on the floor, turning back to glare at the men who now stood in the way, blocking the exit. You were calculating your next move, but a call of your name from behind you stopped you in your tracks.

You turned slowly around, and were unable to believe your eyes. The room was large, the walls tall and gray, with branches hanging from the ceiling. The central focus in the room was a short staircase that led up to an ornate chair. The tops of the stairs were decorated with simple bowls on either side that burned brightly with fire. As ominous as the room was, it could not compare with the terror you felt as your attention was drawn to the figure that sat on the throne, staring smugly down at you.

“Master Kusho…?” you questioned, unable to keep the shock you felt out of your voice.

The man before you looked much older than you remembered him as and carried a sinister aura that wasn’t there before, but you had no doubt that you stood before Shen’s father and former leader of the Kinkou. You stared in disbelief as you tried to make sense of what you were looking at; Master Kusho was alive, there was no doubt of that. But how was this possible?

“But you died…” you stammered with incredulity.

Kusho looked unimpressed as he levelled a haughty look your way. “The dull question of a nobody. It is a wonder any master took you on.”

You bristled at the insult, still too in shock to form the words for a reply. You had presumed him dead, killed by Zed so long ago, only to find out that he was alive, and appeared to be the head of the Navori Brotherhood. But that meant…

“Why did you free Jhin?” you questioned angrily. “You were the head of the Kinkou… I thought you cared about Ionia!”

“You misunderstand,” Kusho sneered. “It is because I care for Ionia that I command the Navori Brotherhood now.”

“You care for power, not Ionia!” you yelled back at him, your anger building up as you stared at him, not seeing any hint of remorse in his smug visage.

“Power is what is required to unify Ionia,” Kusho replied dismissively. “If you are looking for someone to blame, then look to your precious Usan.”

Your breath hitched at the mention of Zed, and it did not go unnoticed by the man before you as his patronizing grin only grew wider at your plight. As you glared at him, your eyes were drawn to either side of his chair, where two tall, imposing statues of Kusho himself sat, almost looking as if they were also looking down on you with their stone eyes. You never could have imagined that the proud, pious Master Kusho could turn into the cruel, vicious man before you.

“Zed convinced me to fake my death, that day in Thanjuul. Then we were free to use the forbidden magics of the Kinkou, and the Kinkou could remain pure in its mission.”

He was explaining the events like it was a reasonable decision, like it was a decision that was easy for you to understand. But he was acting like the Kinkou was some unrelated party to him, and that pissed you off.

“And what about Shen? He thinks that his father is dead!” you retorted.

“Shen’s father _is_ dead,” Kusho replied coldly. “He was never strong enough to be my son in the first place.”

How could he say that? Shen was still struggling with his father’s death, even all these years later, while Kusho didn’t even care. Your heart hurt for Shen; his father had deceived him without batting an eye, all in the name of power. And clearly Kusho wasn’t the only deceiver, nor the one who had come up with the idea to fake his death in the first place; that honor rested solely with Zed.

“But he never…” you trailed off, unable to stomach the fresh waves of betrayal that washed over you.

Kusho seemed to know where your thoughts were heading as he snorted smugly. “That fool swore to me on his honor that he would not reveal our deception. And it seems that Zed values his honor above you and Shen both. A pity.”

And here you thought that you had finally begun to get closer to Zed again. But all that time, he held this secret close to his chest. Every time you had confronted him about killing Kusho, he hadn’t denied it, continuing to let you believe the lie. And now that you knew what had become of Kusho, you weren’t convinced that everyone wouldn’t have been better off if he had actually died that day.

But even through the hurt you felt, you realized that he hadn’t properly answered the question that had brought you here.

You dared to step closer to the raised platform, and Kusho didn’t so much as flinch from his position atop his throne. “Why did you free Jhin?”

Kusho stood up at last, and with a quick hand motion, you were grabbed from behind by the men who had been at the door. You struggled, but your daggers had been taken from you in the previous fight, so you were left with few options and forced to watch Kusho move about the room.

He approached a short pillar that sat just behind his chair, picking up a small blue box that had sat there. Holding the box as if it was a treasure, he began to descend the stairs, walking towards you.

You thought that he had looked bad from his throne, but he looked even worse up close. He was thin, thinner than he had ever been before, the skin of his face stretched almost too thinly over his face. His eyes were a chilling shade of gray, the whites of his eyes now black, which you could only assume was a product of the forbidden shadow magic he had obviously consumed.

He came to a stop a few feet from you, the swirling black liquid in the box he held unnerving you. “Without the war, the people forget that they must be afraid. To unite Ionia under my rule, I must give this land something to fear.”

You couldn’t hold your tongue. “Jhin destroyed the entire port of Nanthee! Hundreds lost their lives for your twisted plans!”

“The lives of peasants do not concern me, and the people believe that Nanthee was destroyed by foreign foes. Just a few more attacks on the larger cities and then all of Ionia will bow to my leadership,” Kusho explained remorselessly.

“You would kill Ionia to unite it?” you replied lowly. “You’re sick. Truly sick.”

“You may yet see things from my point of view,” he said, not looking at you, but instead at his men. “Hold her still.”

A third man approached you, and for some reason stood just off to the side, allowing Kusho the room to stand before you.

“Zed is making his way here as we speak, and I have no use for a disobedient apprentice,” Kusho stated disdainfully, while your heart soared at the news that Zed was on his way. “You should never have come here. But now that you have, I will take the opportunity to break you.”

You couldn’t ask for clarification as the man that was on standby grabbed your face with both hands, forcing your jaw open as Kusho and his unsettling box got closer. You began to panic as Kusho started to tilt the box towards your open mouth, but try as you did, you were locked in place.

“We will see how you handle the magic of the ancients,” Kusho said cruelly. “I may have you replace Zed after I kill him… _if you live_.”

With that, Kusho began to pour the thick, repulsive black liquid down your throat. It looked like ink, and the taste burned your throat as you tried desperately to spit it out. Unfortunately, the men had no intention of letting you spill the liquid magic, as your mouth was forcibly closed, your throat pressed on until you were forced to swallow the unpalatable substance.

Immediately, the men let you go and you fell to the floor, your whole body burning with the worst pain you had ever felt. You wanted to try and throw up the liquid, but your strength was rapidly leaving you as your body began to convulse, your grip on consciousness weakening more and more by the second.

“Leave us,” you heard Kusho instruct his men. “I will handle Zed alone.”

You wanted to fight, to try and warn Zed of what he was walking into, but you found that you didn’t even have the strength to hold onto consciousness anymore as you felt your world fall into painful darkness.

If he was being honest, Zed would have promised you anything in that moment to get you to kiss him. While you had been friends for a long time in your youth, Zed had always had a hard time trying to decipher how you truly felt about him. When he had kissed you and been rejected, he had closed himself off to the possibility that you had any interest in being with him.

When he had left the Kinkou that day, he was too blinded by anger to pay much attention to how much he was hurting you. Thinking back on it, he felt like such an idiot. You had finally become a Kinkou apprentice, the thing you had wanted all your life, and he had abandoned you right after you told him. At the time, your announcement had stung him, a bitter reminder that even you were on the side of the Kinkou, and not him.

He was too young and foolish at the time to understand that you had not seen the horrors that he had. All you had known was the Kinkou base in Thanjuul, so it wasn’t fair of him to expect you to understand the negatives of the Kinkou doctrine like he did when you had never been given the opportunity to do so.

In the year he was gone, he wanted he see you, to send a letter, but he couldn’t bring himself to do either. He tried to justify his inaction with how busy he had been forming his shadow order and fighting against the Noxian invaders, but he couldn’t fool himself with his own excuses. Beyond his guise of being too busy, he knew that he was trying to hide the truth; that he thought that he didn’t deserve to see you after what he had done to you.

The war efforts were a good distraction, but not good enough to keep his thoughts entirely away from you. He had a full year to live with his regrets as he continued to stay away, at least until that day at the temple. He could not beat Noxus without the Kinkou’s box of ancient shadow magic, that much was obvious. And he would do whatever he had to do in order to get it.

That day, Kusho had followed him down into the catacombs of the temple, intent on convincing his former student to return to the Kinkou, but Zed was intent on the opposite. If Kusho were to fake his death and assume control of the Navori Brotherhood, then the Kinkou could still remain balanced, and Zed would be free to take the Tears of the Shadow with Kusho’s blessing. Zed knew that he was making himself an enemy of the Kinkou with his actions, but he would do anything to save Ionia, even if you and Shen believed that he had killed Master Kusho. After all, he had already done so much to hurt you, what was one more betrayal on top of the others?

He believed that he was doing the right thing, destroying any hope of a relationship with his former friends in order to protect Ionia. He was firm in his decision, and was staring out at the chaos of the temple, about to turn and leave the scene when he caught sight of you.

You looked weary, which was understandable given the trauma that Zed had inadvertently caused you. He was expecting you to walk back down to the monastery, but was surprised when you turned and began to make your way into the trees. The scene was so familiar to him that it spurned his feet into motion as he headed into the forest as well. Maybe it had been simple nostalgia that had him following you to the spot where you had trained together so many times, but Zed didn’t stop to question his own motives.

Zed knew that he had been too selfish, thinking that he could have the shadow magic in his grasp and you by his side. He had been desperate and stupid, thinking that his kiss could make you want to leave with him that day. As much as it hurt to have you believe he had killed his former master, he could not break his promise to Kusho. To get the power he needed, he would have to let you go.

In the ten years it had been since he had seen you, he was never fully able to keep you out of his mind. He wondered where you were, what you were doing, and in darker times, wondering if you had survived the war with Noxus at all. His shadow order, the Yanléi, had only grown in numbers, and he certainly had the power and influence to discover your whereabouts, alive or dead, but he never did.

Part of him wanted to bite the bullet and do whatever he had to do to find you and make sure that you were alive, if only for his own peace of mind. But if you were alive, then that invited many other concerns that he wasn’t sure he wanted to think about.

It was not against Kinkou doctrine for members of the Order to marry or have children. Children of the Kinkou usually went on to become Kinkou themselves, just as had been the case with Shen. Just as quickly as he allowed himself to think he may see you again, the excitement turned sour in his stomach as he pictured you with a husband and child, and then his curiosity all but abandoned him.

You weren’t his, it had been made quite clear to him the last time he had seen you that you didn’t want to be with him. It had been ten years; it was pitiful for him to be so concerned about where you were in life. He should just have been happy enough to know that you were alive, anything more than that wasn’t his concern.

He had almost convinced himself that you would remain out of his reach until that night on the bridge. He had been tailing Shen as his former friend investigated leads into Jhin’s whereabouts, and had been watching Shen’s former student dangle a man from a bridge when a figure began to approach the scene. What looked to Zed to be a monotonous exchange quickly attracted his attention when the stranger stepped into the light of the moon, revealing a face that he hadn’t seen since that moment in the forest ten years prior.

It was hard for him to believe that he had found you again, even days later in the market in Kotha as he watched your group question merchants. He had kept his focus on Shen, and that had been his downfall as you had cornered him in an alleyway, assumedly mistaking him for a spy.

In that short interaction, he was able to see just how much you had changed since he had last seen you. You were more confident than you ever had been, and he had found himself impressed that you had managed to trick him into believing that you were a simple courtesan when you had pushed him into the alleyway. When you had stormed out of the alley, frustrated with him, he couldn’t bring himself to follow after you.

The next few days, he found his eyes drawn to you, though he couldn’t bring himself to reveal himself and approach you. It wasn’t unthinkable that you would be helping Shen track down Jhin, but he was still surprised to see you. It almost felt like rubbing salt in his wounds to see that you were still as pretty as you had always been, and still as uninterested in him as ever. He supposed that this was his punishment for his deceptions, being stuck so close to his former friends while knowing they despised him.

He had been standing close by as you and Shen entered the elder’s residence to deal with the likely-grotesque bodies of Jhin’s victims. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to get any closer, Zed busied himself with looking around the small port town for any signs of Jhin. As he walked around town, he began to notice something odd; along with the simple paper lanterns that were strung up on wires around the town, there were also large crimson lanterns that struck a sinister chord of familiarity within him.

Quickly climbing onto a nearby roof, he pulled one of the bulky lanterns towards him, pulling the top off to look inside. It was with a spark of irritation as Zed confirmed his suspicions; the lantern was a bomb. And there were hundreds of identical ones strung up all over the town.

Abandoning the lantern, Zed made his way to higher ground, scaling a higher rooftop as his eyes began to search the crowd. If the whole town was wired to explode, then there was no doubt that Jhin would have to be here somewhere. The lanterns were not just a flashy display; Jhin was testing the limits of what he could do, and likely intended to use the chaos to cover his escape. The lanterns lined every street, leading up to a docked boat at the end of the wooden dock.

Before Zed could consider a plan of attack, his gaze was drawn to a single figure in the crowd. An unremarkable figure in the eyes of the people milling about the street, but not in Zed’s eyes. It was Jhin, he was certain of it; his suspicions confirmed as he realized the man was staring back at him.

Without a thought to anything else, Zed dove down, shedding his disguise as he chased after Jhin, who had fled the moment that Zed had given chase. As he used his shadow dash to try and close the gap, he heard Shen’s voice behind him as his former friend angrily chased after him.

Zed tried to warn Shen about the bombs as he kept on Jhin’s tail, but his warnings fell on deaf ears; Shen was too distracted by his anger to stop and listen to Zed’s words. As they reached the end of the dock, their time ran out. Jhin gleefully proclaimed his victory as he boarded the departing ship, and then Zed realized he was exactly where Jhin wanted him to be.

The spark had been ignited, and explosions rang out as the lanterns began to detonate. Watching the town become engulfed in explosive blasts snapped Zed’s focus back to his own situation. The lanterns lined the entire dock, including the section above his and Shen’s heads. Without giving it a second thought, Zed threw himself at Shen, sending them both into the water below as colorful explosions detonated over their heads.

The ship that Jhin was on had set sail as the explosions decimated the town, and while it was slowly getting farther away, Zed knew it was still within range of his shadow step. If he used it now, he could catch up to Jhin and take him out like he desperately wanted to. But as he swam in place, he realized that Shen had yet to crest the surface of the water, so he instead dove under the water to grab his sinking friend, pulling him back with him onto the beach. Jhin had gotten away, but he wasn’t willing to let Shen die just to catch the golden demon.

As Zed watched the boat get farther and farther away, Shen rose, spirit blade in hand and ready to strike. The destruction around them; this was why he and Shen needed to work together. They would never catch Jhin working apart like this.

But once again, Zed’s words would fall on deaf ears. Shen was too angry as he insisted that the town had only been destroyed because Zed was there to be Jhin’s audience. Zed had tried to make Shen think about who Jhin was working for, hoping that his friend would seek out the truth that Zed’s honor bound him to conceal, but Shen would hear none of it.

As they fought, Zed thought of another option. They needed to work together, that was an absolute fact. But Shen was stubborn and bitter, though not without cause. His last chance to get Shen’s cooperation was to put the power in Shen’s hands. So as they fought, Zed put less effort into his strikes, and took more hits. As Shen’s last blow sent him into unconsciousness, Zed hoped that his capture would be the final push Shen needed to agree to join forces with him to take down Jhin.

Zed wasn’t surprised to wake up in a wooden cart, strung up by his wrists and shirtless. It wasn’t comfortable, but he had been in worse situations. Shen had been thorough; Zed could immediately feel that his connection to the shadows had been blocked by the paper talismans that had been pasted all over his wooden prison.

His mind could only be so occupied by Jhin before thoughts of you crept up. You had undoubtedly been in the town when it had exploded, but he didn’t consider for one second that you hadn’t made it out. The skill he had seen you demonstrate before told him all he needed to know about your capabilities. Then the question on his mind became whether or not you would visit him in his cell.

Your conversation from a few days prior had ended on a decidedly unfinished note, and while Zed wanted the opportunity to speak with you again, he wasn’t sure if or when that chance would come. He had only spoke with you for a moment, so he had no real way of knowing just how much your personality had changed since he had last seen you.

It was well into the night by the time you had finally come to see him. He was surprised when instead of saying anything, you had offered him your water, which he couldn’t refuse with how dry his throat felt. He tried to search your face for any insights on how you were feeling, but your face had remained stubbornly neutral. However, that hadn’t lasted long.

It was another bitter pain in his chest to discover that you hadn’t been Kinkou in a long time, but you still had no interest in being at his side. You had freely aired all your grievances with him, while he couldn’t muster any words in his defence. And why should he? Everything you said was indisputable; he knew he had let you down several times over, but hearing it from your lips made the sting of his past actions even more potent.

When you left, the air felt sour with regret. Zed sighed as he tried in vain to position himself so his arms would ache a little less. Your anger with him was justified, but even though he knew it was unlikely, he couldn’t help but find himself wanting to see your smile again, to talk with you like you used to when you were both younger.

You had come to see him again the next afternoon, and Zed found himself almost stunned by your change in demeanor. When he had expected more anger and hatred, you had given him a taste of how the two of you had been many years before. Zed found his guard lowering at last, at least until you announced your intentions to seek out the person who had freed Jhin from his cage.

He had been trying fruitlessly to lead Shen down that path, as then the truth could be uncovered without breaking his promise to Kusho, but he hadn’t anticipated you taking up the cause in Shen’s stead. He knew very well what lay at the end of your quest, but honor bound his tongue. Kusho was not a weak man in terms of both power and resources, and would spare no cost to maintain his rule over the brotherhood, as well as his closely-guarded secrets.

Zed himself intended to seek out Kusho after Jhin was captured, with or without Shen, but even with the skill you possessed, Zed was concerned. He knew Jhin was first priority, so he forced away any thoughts of abandoning his current cause to stay by your side, but that didn’t mean he felt good about letting you go down this road alone.

He found himself all too willing to agree to your request, and not just to get you to kiss him. He hadn’t thought that he would hear you ask him to come find you once this was all over, and even knowing that he was not the caliber of man that deserved your company, he had agreed. He had made the promise to you, and then you had kissed him. He had no choice but to watch as you left, the chains on his wrists feeling even more restrictive as they stopped him from pulling you back to him when all he wanted to do was kiss you just a bit longer.

Shen came soon after you had left, and the atmosphere in the small wooden room turned serious as talks turned to Jhin. But nothing was ever easy with the two former friends; Jhin needed to die, or else there would be a risk of this happening again. The only way Ionia could be safe was if the barely-human monster was somewhere that he couldn’t escape from, and death was a box that Zed was eager to put him in.

But Shen didn’t agree. The only way that they would work together would be if Zed agreed to capture Jhin alive. He was not Kinkou, and he didn’t agree with Shen’s pacifism, but he had no choice but to agree to Shen’s demands, because with the chains on his wrists and the magic-binding talismans surrounding him, he had no way to escape of his own power.

They were to set off to Piltover immediately, on the trail of not only Jhin, but Shen’s former apprentice, who was most likely rushing headfirst into danger beyond what she could imagine. When they arrived in Piltover, the first merchant Zed had asked had admitted to seeing Akali arrive a month prior, so they would have to work fast.

As they begun to follow Akali’s tracks, Zed tried again to entice Shen into investigating the person who had released Jhin and continued to fund his terrorism, but to no avail. He had pushed too hard on the subject, and Shen had become suspicious, accusing him of revealing Jhin’s location to someone. Zed had no choice but to drop the matter; no matter how much he wanted his friend to learn the truth, he could not force him on that path, and he could not tell him the truth himself and break his oath to Kusho.

Jhin’s trail led them to Piltover’s theatre district; it was only natural that someone as dramatic as Jhin insisted upon a literal stage as his battleground. Zed and Shen dashed down the isle of an empty, abandoned theatre, breaking through a window and finding themselves exactly where they needed to be.

They were high above Piltover, landing on an abandoned train track that now looked like something out of a nightmare. Gnarled trees sat atop monstrous works of machinery, each equipped with drills for arms and outfitted with several rocket launchers. Clearly a lot of work had gone into the planning of this scene; Jhin never did things half-heartedly, not when it concerned his art.

Jhin himself sat on an old mining cart, rifle in one hand as he stared in the direction of the two men. Hanging from one of the trees behind the golden demon was Akali, her wrists bound by rope that was tied to a thick branch of the tree. Zed couldn’t tell if Akali was conscious or not, but she seemed to be unharmed, at least for now.

Shen wasted no time, diving at Jhin with his divine blade despite Zed’s warning that this was clearly a trap. Zed readied himself for the likely fight to come as he watched Shen tear into Jhin, who burst into cogs and wires. A mechanical dummy dressed as its creator.

As Shen discovered the ruse, the sky lit up with explosions of color as Jhin descended from the sky on a raised platform, mechanical arms in the shape of opening flowers lowering at his side. Zed slinked in the shadows as Jhin began to taunt Shen, alluding to the great secret that Shen had yet to figure out for himself.

As Jhin aimed his pistol at Akali’s face, Zed struck, tossing a large shuriken out as Shen leaped up to cut the supports on Jhin’s platform. The flower-like metal appendages struck out, one pinning Zed to one of a tree as another knocked Shen to the ground. In his usual overconfidence, Jhin had dodged Zed’s shuriken as he made his way to Shen’s prone figure, gun at the ready. But Jhin had failed to account for one thing… Zed’s shuriken hadn’t been aimed at him.

Akali, her ropes cut free by the shuriken, charged at the masked killer, landing a strong punch to the surprised Jhin. Grabbing his gun, she knocked him down and took aim, only stopped by Shen’s shout. Where Akali backed off, Zed quickly took her place in front of the crazed artist, the hidden blade in his gauntlet raised high.

Zed demanded that Jhin tell them now he escaped his prison, who had freed him. Even if he could not tell Shen himself, he could still force the truth out of Jhin’s mouth.

But Zed’s last selfish attempt to have his old friend learn the truth regarding his father was doomed to fail. Jhin remained coy as he plainly refused to state who had freed him, clearly taking pleasure in denying Zed the information he desperately wanted Shen to hear.

“Think of it this way, Zed,” the artist spoke calmly. “I was set free, but now that means you’re free too.”

Zed’s frustration boiled over as he tossed Jhin to the ground at Shen’s feet. As irritated as it made him to admit, Jhin was right. By freeing Jhin, Kusho had shown Zed that he was no longer worthy of his loyalty. He knew that Kusho was ambitious, but Ionia would be recovering from Jhin’s antics for years to come, all for Kusho’s cruel need to gain more power. He would have to end this now, this confrontation had been coming for some time. Zed dove from the bridge, leaving Shen and Akali to deal with Jhin as he began his journey back to brotherhood headquarters in Zhyun.

As he approached the base camp of the Navori Brotherhood, Zed reflected harshly on his own decisions. He had gotten to where he was now by lying and betraying those closest to him. Shen’s friendship was out of his reach, and he could only blame himself. He deserved to have Shen believe that he had killed Kusho as a punishment for his selfishness. He still had a hard time believing that you wanted to see him, considering you were still under the belief that he had killed Kusho as well.

He didn’t see any sign of you as he snuck around the camp and began to scale the rocky mountain face that would take him to Kusho’s throne room. He could only hope that you hadn’t found your way to this place; you would remain ignorant of the truth, but you would be safe. Kusho was dangerous, but Zed did not go into fights that he knew he couldn’t win. He would kill Kusho, and then he would try to keep his promise to you, as much as he felt that he didn’t deserve your company or your kindness.

Zed climbed over the ledge, walking the familiar path to the stony temple that Kusho was usually found in. As he stepped into the temple, it felt like this part of his life, the part where he had been bound to the brotherhood, was coming to an end. He owed a lot to Kusho, but not enough to look the other way when his former master released mass murderers on Ionia in order to bend the people to his will. Zed had taken the shadow ichor to save Ionia, but Kusho had allowed himself to be corrupted by the draw of its power. It was probably for the best that Shen wasn’t by his side, remaining unburdened by the truth regarding his father.

“You may have evaded my army, but you cannot hide your presence from me, Zed,” Kusho spoke from his place atop his throne, eyes dark and sinister, no trace of the humanity he used to possess residing within their depths. Zed’s apprentice, Kayn, sat on the steps below Kusho, watching the situation unfold silently. “You did not tell Shen of our deception.”

“I gave you my word on my honor, Lord Kusho,” Zed answered, feeling dissatisfied.

“But you were trying to get Shen to investigate into who released Jhin?” Kusho pressed, which Zed could not deny. “And now you plan to call me a fiend? To tell me that I made the wrong decision when I released Jhin?”

Zed felt his anger rising at Kusho’s total lack of care for the loss of human life he had facilitated, for the potential loss of his own life, as well as Shen’s. Kusho was truly human in form only, his heart warped and black with his hunger for power.

“Jhin reduced Nanthee to ashes!” Zed shouted. “He tried to kill me, to kill your own son! If you intended to betray me, there are others assassins you could have chosen!”

Kusho waved a hand dismissively. “You were more my son than Shen ever was.”

“You were supposed to keep Ionia safe from the shadows,” Zed argued. “Not let our people die for your ambitions!”

Kusho stood up, looking down at Zed from beside one of the statues of himself. “Ionia forgets the horrors of war. They forget that they need my protection. I am simply reminding them of what fear tastes like. The word has already spread of the attack on Nanthee. A few more attacks and nobody will question my will.”

“I chose this path to do what I could not in the Kinkou!” Zed said as he thought of all he had lost to give himself to the shadows. You and Shen had been lost to him for so long, only for Kusho to betray what he thought had been their shared ideals for protecting Ionia. “By taking a life, I could save many more. But you do not place value on the lives of innocents any longer.”

“Nobodies and peasants will bow to me or they do not deserve my protection,” Kusho asserted haughtily.

“I was once a peasant and a nobody,” Zed argued, and Kusho only cackled cruelly in response.

“And you do not bend to my will, so you must be replaced,” Kusho sneered, turning his focus to the raven-haired young man that had continued to sit by silently. “Kayn, kill Zed and become the new master of the shadows.”

Kayn slowly stood up, large scythe in hand. Zed stood still, observing his friend and apprentice as dark shadows swirled around his form. Zed did not move to take a defensive stance as Kayn began to descend the stairs and approach him. He knew that there were many things that could happen in the next moment, but he chose to keep his faith in Kayn and remain still.

“Many of our order wait outside,” Kayn drawled darkly. “They have no loyalty to you, and intend to serve me and Lord Kusho. They have no honor…”

As Kayn spoke, he turned, standing at Zed’s side and smirking up at Kusho, his scythe held proudly at his side. In that moment, Zed knew his faith was not misplaced, not this time.

“…but I know who my master is. And he taught me honor,” Kayn finished, turning to address Zed directly. “What should I do about the traitors to our Order that wait outside?”

“Kill them,” Zed said simply, and that was all that Kayn needed to hear.

“I’ll wait for you outside,” Kayn replied, leaving the room as Zed prepared himself for the fight to come, staring down Kusho as he would a corrupted nature spirit that needed to be put down.

“Your student is more obedient than mine ever were,” Kusho growled darkly as he ripped off his top, exposing the dark tattoos crafted from shadow magic that covered his torso and arms. “But thankfully, I have one other promising apprentice.”

Kusho reached a hand over to a short string, pulling it down as Zed watched, unsure of where this was heading. The pulled string caused a curtain at the back of the room to raise, a curtain that Zed couldn’t recall seeing on any of his previous visits to this place. And as the curtain rose, he immediately knew why that was.

Your prone body laid in the far corner of the room, and it was immediately obvious to Zed what had happened to you. You were unmoving, dark shadows swirling around your body as jet black veins ran along any patch of exposed skin Zed could see, large vine-like veins of shadow crawling up your cheeks and over your eyes. You had to be alive; the shadows would have abandoned your form otherwise as the shadows had no interest in the dead. But from what he could tell, you were close to death’s door, the shadow ichor clearly too much for your body to handle.

Kusho stared down at your dying form with visible smugness. “Did I give her too much? I have no need of an apprentice that can’t handle that much of the shadow ichor.”

“You…” Zed growled. It wasn’t too late to save you, to purge the shadows from your body, but he knew that if he went to you, Kusho would strike him down, and then you were both dead. He would have to go through Kusho to get to you, and if Kusho’s cruel laughter was anything to go by, he was very aware of Zed’s predicament.

“You left her behind all those years ago, but now she’ll have the shadows for company… if she survives,” Kusho sneered, raising the box of shadow ichor to his own mouth and taking a long drink of it.

Immediately, the sheer amount of shadow magic in his body reacted with the excess ichor he was consuming and Kusho’s pale skin turned a sickly blue-gray as four wing-like appendages burst out of his back. Kusho didn’t waste a second more, opening his mouth and spewing out a rush of shadow magic that Zed quickly jumped to the side to dodge. If Zed had any doubts of his former master’s remaining humanity, they had all been answered as he gazed at the monster before him. He would have to make this quick if he had any hope of saving your life.

“You were a weakling,” Kusho growled as he sent more shadow blasts at Zed. “So desperate for approval. You even cried when I gave you the name Usan.”

“You used me!” Zed retorted as he dove out of the path of Kusho’s shadow tendrils, only to find himself surrounded by faces that were all too familiar.

Figures made of Kusho’s shadows surrounded him, bringing him back to the moments that Kusho sought to portray on the faces of Zed’s memories. His mother’s crying face when she came to the temple all those years ago to beg him to come home, Shen’s stern face when he had seen Zed not as a friend, but as his father’s killer, and right in front of him was you, ten years younger than you were now, your expression twisted with despair. The face you had made the day he had told you he was leaving the Kinkou. Your sad, disappointed gaze stuck on him, guilt twisting his insides as he continued to evade Kusho’s attacks.

He sliced through the shadow figures that surrounded him with his hidden blades, the images dissipating into the air. The image of your face did not weaken Zed as Kusho had likely assumed it would; it had only reminded him of just what he was fighting for. You, the _real_ you, depended on him right now as you desperately clung to life. If there was any time to make up for his past mistakes with you, it was now.

“She wanted to be with you, and you could have had her,” Kusho stated in mocking concern. “But you chose to kill and deceive, because you wanted power, just like I want it. You cannot escape your true desires, Zed.”

Zed continued to evade Kusho’s dramatic attacks, emboldening his former master further. “Why have you not attacked me, Zed?” Kusho questioned arrogantly. “Your pitiful honor will not allow you to strike me?”

Zed had been biding his time, waiting patiently as Kusho flashily displayed his powers, but with every move, Kusho’s weakness became clearer. Hardening his resolve, Zed summoned his own shadow clones at last, copies of himself appearing all around the shadow beast that was Kusho.

“Your powers are weakening already,” Zed stated plainly. “You have had these powers for months, but I have spent many years mastering the shadows.”

Kusho caught on to Zed’s assertion with an angered howl, but Zed did not falter.

“I wanted this power, so I let you use me. But you are not my master any longer, and you are not my equal. You should have never thought that you could hope to match me.”

As he finished speaking, Zed dove forward, his numerous shadow clones doing the same as Kusho’s corrupted flesh was pierced from every direction. As he struck the killing blow, Zed was very aware that this was it. He was free of Kusho’s will, but he had also become guilty of the crime that Shen had always believed that he had committed. Any last hopes of reconciliation between them died as Kusho’s body hit the floor, now just looking like a frail old man as the shadows left him.

He could mourn Kusho later; he had a much more pressing issue at the moment. Zed sprinted over to you, noting with bitterness that you looked even worse than you had minutes ago. Your skin was turning black as shadow, and your body felt cold under his touch. He would need to act fast.

Zed began to press down on your chest before pressing his mouth to yours to give you air. He desperately repeated the process for almost a minute before he saw any results. You began to sputter, barely conscious, and he held your body on your side as you began to throw up the inky black shadow magic you had been forced to ingest. As more of the ichor splattered on the floor, the shadows on your skin began to recede as color returned to your skin. At last, you passed out again, exhausted by the ordeal, but alive.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Zed wiped your mouth and chin with a ripped portion of the curtain before gently picking you up in his arms. He spared a glance towards the downed Kusho as he headed to the doorway, but was silent as he passed. The temple lit up in flames as Zed exited, likely a tactic of Kusho’s upon his death.

Kayn was waiting diligently for his master, corpses littering the ground around him. As soon as he saw Zed with you in his arms, Kayn stood up, approaching his master.

“I took out the ones out here, but thousands more are on their way,” Kayn told him before his gaze dropped down to look at you. “Is she okay?”

Zed looked down at you as well; your skin looked better than it had, but he knew that he couldn’t have gotten all of the shadow ichor out of your body. It would be up to you to pull through now, but he knew that he had to get you to safety before he could assess you further.

“She took in a lot of the shadows,” Zed answered simply. “But she’s breathing.”

Kayn frowned, looking torn. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop Kusho. You’d never mentioned her to me so I didn’t know she was important to you.”

Zed shook his head as the two men began their descent from the mountain. “You had no way of knowing. And if you had tried to stop him, Kusho would have seen through our deception.”

Kayn scoffed in annoyance. “That jackass really thought I intended to turn on you.”

“You could have,” Zed admitted. He had told Kayn to get close to Kusho in his stead, knowing that Kusho intended to betray him and take members of his shadow order to do so. Zed trusted Kayn more than any other within his order, but he also knew what the allure of power could make people do.

Kayn did not share Zed’s doubts, looking almost offended by the idea that he could ever betray his master. “You found me when I had been left to die. If you hadn’t taken me in, I would have had nothing. My loyalty and respect is earned, not bought by old fools with undeserved pride.”

Zed quietly considered Kayn’s words as the two walked down the steps that would lead them away from this place forever. They were truly against everyone now, so Kayn’s loyalty was needed now more than ever. The Kinkou, the Brotherhood, and the traitors to his order… they would all be out for his blood now. And now he had brought you into that danger with him. He doubted that you fully understood the danger you put yourself in by associating with him, the danger that would continue to plague you if you stayed by his side.

He sighed to himself. He would have to tell you everything when you woke up, he owed you that much. As much as he wanted you by his side, you deserved the right to make that choice after knowing the full situation. Even if it meant losing you again, Zed would not lie to you. But that would come later; first he had to get you somewhere safe if you had a chance at recovering from the ordeal you had suffered at Kusho’s hands.

You couldn’t breathe. The shadows filled your lungs, your throat… everywhere you had feeling in felt constricted with pain. Your surroundings all faded away, and it was getting hard to even think. The shadows crawled all over you, covering your eyes and ears. They removed all of your senses, demanding all of your attention.

You had no experience with shadow magic; the Kinkou magic you knew was no help in the face of the ancient dark magic. Eventually, your magic stopped responding to your calls as shadowy tendrils slithered over your face, pulsating in a rhythm that was beyond your understanding. You felt lost, unsure if you were conscious or not as you sunk further into the deep, inescapable darkness.

You felt like you were drowning with no way out when there was a sudden pressure on your chest. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, but it shocked you out of the void you had been tumbling into. In the back of your mind, you realized that someone was by your side. You barely remembered where you were through the pain, leaving you no room to think about who had come to your side.

Your body was moved, leaving you feeling dizzy and nauseated, a familiar feeling in your throat pushing you to open your mouth as you began to retch. The ichor that had tasted awful going down somehow tasted even worse coming back up. Your throat burned from the effort as well as with the lingering effects of the shadow magic. After what felt like forever, your retching stopped. You still felt sick, but you didn’t feel like you were dying.

The shadows that had engulfed you began to recede at last, leaving your body feeling much less restrained. It was a great relief to feel your senses return to you at last, your world expanding out again as you were freed from the captive darkness. The shadows had fled from around your eyes, but you found that you lacked the energy to open them. You wanted to know what had happened and who had saved you, but you couldn’t find the strength, no matter how hard you tried. You wanted to stay awake, but it was no longer within your power to decide that for yourself. You were exhausted, physically and mentally, and you could put off unconsciousness no longer.

Before you were fully awake, your brain began to register the scene around you. You could hear birds chirping and feel a gentle breeze on your skin. You opened your eyes with a short yawn, reaching a hand up to cover your mouth as you surveyed your surroundings.

Your eyes went wide as you noticed just what it was that you had been resting on. Your head had been laying against soft black cloth, and upon opening your eyes, you found Zed’s face just above your own, his eyes closed in sleep. You found yourself staring at his face; the calm expression he carried in sleep was so foreign to how he was when he was awake.

Seeing his face reminded you of just how long it had been since that day where you had kissed him. The black eye Shen had given him had healed, and he looked a lot more at peace than you had ever seen him. As you shifted against him, you realized that he had one arm around you, his hand resting on your hip. Closing your eyes again, you allowed yourself to cuddle against Zed for a few minutes more before your nose couldn’t take it anymore. You weren’t sure how long you had been unconscious for, but the shadow ichor had done you no favors in the smell department.

You slowly began to remove yourself from Zed’s arms, not wanting to wake him up. Looking around, you found that you seemed to be in some sort of small clearing that was surrounded by trees. Zed had been leaning against a tree that bordered the clearing, but other than the two of you, you could see nobody else around. You would have to ask him what had happened when he woke up, but for now, you had bigger priorities.

Looking down at yourself, you grimaced. Your clothing was dirty, covered in dust and a too-hard black residue that must have been dried shadow ichor. Beyond that, your hair felt greasy and tangled.

You realized that you could faintly hear water nearby, and the opportunity was too tempting for you to pass up. You wouldn’t be long; it wouldn’t take too much time to go wash yourself and your clothes off. You didn’t want to wake Zed up anyways; given he had likely rescued you from Kusho, he deserved the rest. You could ask him what happened when he woke up.

Walking through the trees, you were relieved to find a small river that was deep enough to bathe in. Making your way to the water, you happily disrobed, eager to have a chance to feel clean again after all you had been through. The water wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t freezing, which was good enough for your current purpose.

Quickly stripping, you began to wash off your clothes first. The dirt and grass stains came out easy enough, but the shadow ichor was another story. You were able to lighten the dark stains with a lot of scrubbing, but it became clear to you that the ancient magic stains were not going anywhere. It was a shame; you had really liked that top, but you didn’t really want to walk around with the reminder of your ordeal staining your clothing.

After getting your clothing as clean as it could be with your current resources, you hung them up neatly on a tree branch before lowering yourself into the water. Despite its lack of warmth, the water felt heavenly on your grimy skin as you ducked under the water to clean your hair as well. You scrubbed at the patches of dirt on your skin, happy to watch the flecks of grime dissipate into the water.

It couldn’t have been that long since you had been at Kusho’s mercy, but it felt like the calm water was taking years of stress away from you. Then again, it could also be your reunion with Zed that was driving your mood up, especially after discovering that he hadn’t killed Master Kusho all those years ago. After all these years, you finally felt like you had gotten back the thing that had left you feeling like you were missing something.

While you wished that he had told you the truth, you understood why he hadn’t. But going forward, you hoped your relationship could become as close as it had once been again. Knowing Zed, he would require more persuasion with how much of a recluse he had been for so long. But he was clearly amicable to your kisses, and you slyly noted that you wouldn’t mind employing that particular tactic again. It wasn’t hard to admit to yourself that you weren’t satisfied just being his old friend like you had in the past.

As you were contemplating how to go about your plans to approach Zed, your quiet bath was interrupted by the sound of footsteps dashing across the grass. Standing up, you raised an arm to cover your breasts as you turned to face the intruder.

The footsteps stopped as you turned and saw Zed, whose concerned look morphed quickly into surprise as he took in your naked form. It looked like he had been searching around for you; you noted that the desperate look on his face was rather cute. And now that he was here, and you were already naked, the situation you had been hoping for had been dropped right in your lap, and you weren’t willing to let the opportunity pass you by.

Clenching the hand at your side into a fist, nails biting into the skin of your palm, you allowed the slight pain to motivate you into action as you let an inviting smile grace your lips. “Good morning.”

Zed looked taken aback by your forwardness, and it took everything in you to refrain from laughing at his expression. “You weren’t…”

“Sorry,” you apologized, wading to the edge of the river. “I needed a bath, but I didn’t want to wake you.”

Zed nodded, looking ready to turn back. “I’ll wait for you back–”

“Wait!” you called out, and he stopped, but didn’t turn back to face you. You didn’t plan on letting him escape that easily. “You’re here anyways… why not join me?”

Zed was still, a little _too_ still, so you gave it one more shot. “Please?”

He sighed, finally turning to look at you. You didn’t want to scare him off, so you lowered yourself back down into the water before you lowered your arm from your breasts. He began to come closer, and you averted your eyes, staring at some shimmering rocks under the surface of the water as you listened to the sound of Zed disrobing. You were having a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that you and Zed were about to be fully unclothed; you were too old to let this get to you so much, but at the same time, you couldn’t help it.

Your thinking time was cut short as you heard Zed enter the water, ripples making their way to lap against your skin. As you heard him get closer, you found yourself unable to look his way, your cheeks likely red.

Zed didn’t stop until he was at your back, a shiver going down your spine as he leaned down, his mouth right at your ear. “Why won’t you look at me?” he asked, voice huskier than you had ever heard it before. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“I… it is,” you answered quietly.

“Then look at me,” he replied teasingly, and you didn’t resist as he gripped your shoulder, gently turning you around to face him.

You shouldn’t be acting like this. You had killed many people before, so why were you much more nervous now than you had been then? However, that nervousness faded the moment that you looked into Zed’s eyes, half-lidded and focussed on your lips. He looked more attractive than he ever had, and you let your eyes close as he quickly lowered his face to yours to press his lips against your own.

Zed took full advantage of his lack of restraints this time, one of his hands going to the back of your head while the other went down to your hip so he could pull you closer as he kissed you. Your slow reaction time left your arms caught between his own, which gave you the opportunity to place your own hands on his chest, fingers pressed against tight muscles and dark tattoos. Your previous experiences kissing him had not done him justice at all, because you were quickly beginning to feel dizzy from how much intensity he was putting into the kiss.

It also wasn’t helping your focus that being pulled as close to Zed as you had been was giving you just a little bit too much insight into how much he wanted this. You were enjoying his tongue in your mouth, but this had been a long time coming already and you were too impatient to allow things to move slowly. You found yourself wanting to overwhelm him, to see what he looked like when he lost himself fully in you.

You redoubled your efforts in the kiss, meeting a swipe of his tongue with a soft moan as you reached one hand beneath the water to wrap your hand around his hard cock. Zed stiffened at the contact, but didn’t pull away from you, although the responsiveness of his mouth against yours began to suffer when you started running your closed fist up and down his cock. Pleased with the response you were getting from him, you began to stroke him faster and faster, until he pulled away from the kiss at last with a low groan.

“You just can’t wait,” he chastised without malice.

“I’m tired of waiting,” you replied as you continued to stroke him, his eyes closing as he let out a deep breath. “I want you so badly, Zed.”

Zed inhaled sharply, as if your words had cut him, his eyes opening immediately, the intensity of his gaze stilling your hand and making you blush. You were the next one to be surprised as Zed’s hands went to the backs of your thighs, lifting you up and forcing you let go of his cock and grab onto him to keep yourself from falling back-first into the river. You yelped, wide eyes meeting his smug gaze as he began to wade towards the shore.

Once you were back on the grass, you were quickly laid on your back, Zed looking down at you, water dripping off his lower half. He knew that you couldn’t look away from him, and seemed pleased with the attention. You shivered as he ran a hand up your hip, trailing it up your body before closing his fingers around one breast. He began to massage your breast gently while his other hand went between your legs to rub against your clit, and the sensations were making it hard for you to focus on his words as you squirmed underneath him.

“I’ve wanted to see you like this for so long,” Zed admitted. “Are you sure that you want this?”

He was being so unfair, asking you questions while you were barely able to think. The best response you could give was a strained moan of his name, which brought a smirk to his lips as he leaned closer to you, removing his hand from your breast so he could support his own weight as he kissed you. He didn’t let up one bit with the circles he was making with his thumb on your clit, and you couldn’t do much more than moan under his touch, your hands around his neck and grasping at his hair.

“I want you, Usan. Only you, only ever you,” you sighed, staring up into his eyes, watching the way his breath hitched at your words, his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe what you were saying. You noticed a flush to his cheeks, the sight only endearing him further to you.

“Stop,” he growled weakly in response. “If you keep talking like that, I won’t be able to hold back.”

“Please, Zed,” you whispered, and that was enough.

Your other leg was quickly wrapped around him as his cock sank into you, slowly at first and then faster when he noticed how easily you were taking him in. As he stilled, momentarily distracted by what he was feeling, you felt emboldened, grabbing the stunned Zed’s face and pulling him down so you could kiss him. Zed groaned into your mouth as you ground your hips up as much as you could, a sound that you were all too pleased to hear the usually-serious assassin make.

Zed pulled back from the kiss, panting lightly as he withdrew slightly from you, only to rock back in, the immediate prick of feelings causing you to let out a muted cry. Zed’s impatience was clear as he began to set a fast pace from the start as you tried to fight off the desire to close your eyes, desperate to watch Zed’s face as he stared down at you, eyes dark and hungry.

Soon, the pleasure you were feeling got too much to bear with your eyes open, and not a moment after your eyes were closed, you heard Zed’s voice, closer than he had been before, his lips against your ear as he continued to fuck you.

“I should have found you sooner,” he growled heatedly. “I should’ve had you like this… like I’ve always wanted.”

Zed moved down to suck at your neck, one hand shifting to move your legs higher up on his waist, the shift in angle causing his next thrust to hit even deeper against a spot you didn’t know you had. Combined with a well-timed drag of his teeth against your neck, you were so close to your peak that all you could do was clutch at Zed’s chest and biceps as you desperately moaned his name.

“I won’t let you get away again,” he promised. “I’ve only ever wanted you.”

Where had this Zed been hiding all of these years? The man he was now felt so foreign to everything you knew about your childhood friend, but at the same time, the sentiment behind his words hit such a familiar chord within you. You didn’t want to continue living job to job, with no meaningful companionship. You wanted to be with Zed just as much as he wanted to be with you, and you intended to tell him that as soon as you could form coherent sentences again.

But right now, you just wanted so badly to watch him get off, hoping he was as close as you were. Zed’s thrusts were getting slower, but deeper, and you took that as a sign that he was just as close as you. His cock continued to hit at the spot inside you that was above anything else, making you clench down hard on him, and with a deep groan, he repeated that same motion, watching you moan as your nails dug into his skin.

That was evidently enough for Zed as he stilled after one last push into you, his eyes closing as his jaw locked with tension. Just as you were starting to feel your own chances at orgasm escaping, Zed’s eyes opened, the heedy focus in them making you blush as he stared down at you.

Focussing on his face became difficult as Zed began to gently grind against you as his thumb rubbed at your clit, leaning down to kiss roughly at your neck as your pleasure climbed back up to a peak and you cried out. Zed made every effort to allow you to ride out your orgasm, rubbing slowly against you as he sucked on the side of your neck. You were left audibly panting when he pulled himself off of you at last to sit back on the grass, jerking his head to the side to try and move his sweaty bangs out of his face.

You sat up too, doing your best to ignore the unpleasantly messy feeling you had between your legs as you leaned into him, wrapping your arms around his back as you pressed your face into his neck, revelling in the closeness.

“I’m glad you kept your promise,” you said, voice muffled by his neck.

Zed sighed in response, his arms coming up to return the hug as he rested his chin on your head. “I wasn’t sure if I would. Not until I saw you laying in Kusho’s chamber, nearly dead. You make it hard to leave you alone.”

You were slightly disappointed, but not surprised as you pulled back enough for you to look him in the eyes. “You didn’t want to see me again?”

Zed frowned, looking down at the grass for a moment as you waited for his answer with a clawing unrest in your heart until he spoke up at last. “You deserve a better man than me at your side.”

Swallowing your frustration, you put a hand to his cheek, forcing him to face you. You could see regret in his eyes, as if they were swimming with the years of pain he had endured for the choices he had made. But now that you knew the truth at last, you would not allow him to leave you behind again.

“I’m pretty sure it’s my decision who I want to be with,” you replied teasingly. “You are a good man, whether you admit it to yourself or not.”

“What I’ve done… Shen will become your enemy,” he muttered.

“You let me handle my relationship with Shen,” you replied, frowning at his efforts to try and scare you away. You stared deeply into his eyes, stroking his cheek with your thumb and hoping he would accept what you were saying. “Zed, I love you.”

Zed blinked, his arms around you tightening as you watched his defeated expression melt into contemplation, but you didn’t intend to give him any time to think of more excuses.

“I want an answer, Zed,” you insisted. “I won’t let you go until you answer me, so I hope you’re comfortable.”

You saw a spark of life in his eyes at last as one of his eyebrows rose in a mock challenge. “You know that I can just use the shadows to escape?”

You narrowed your eyes at him, leaning closer, your breasts pressing against his chest. “If you even try–”

Zed smirked at your pouting expression, leaning down to kiss you. You refused to close your eyes, unwilling to allow him to distract you and make good on his teasing threats of escape. After a few seconds, he pulled back, a small smile on his lips.

“I suppose I can’t run away anymore, so I might as well accept it,” he said, your heart skipping a beat at the genuine emotion in his voice. He sighed, not looking at all upset to resign himself to his fate. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

Satisfied with his answer, you closed your eyes as your mouths met again, happily accepting the passion he was putting into the kiss, his arms unwilling to let you go. It had been so long since you had felt a sense of belonging like you had when you had been with Zed when he was Govos, and when he had been Usan. But as you adjusted yourself against him, you realized that you had another problem to deal with. Reluctantly, you pulled back from the kiss, resting your forehead against Zed’s.

“I think we may need another bath,” you laughed. “Maybe several.”

Zed didn’t need any further hints as he picked you up, heading back towards the river, his footsteps only faltering minutely as you decided to press kisses to his neck as he walked. You were glad that your shadow magic-induced sleep had left you feeling well-rested, because you knew that your bath with Zed would likely leave you drained of all the energy you were currently feeling, although you were not complaining one bit.

“How long was I asleep for?” you asked as you pulled your shirt on over your head, relieved that it was at least marginally more dry than it had been when you had hung it on the tree branch.

“A day,” Zed answered as he fastened the straps on his gauntlets, flexing his arm to check that they were properly adjusted. “We’re a few hours away from one of my order’s bases.”

You finished adjusting your own clothing, leaning against a tree while you watched Zed put on the rest of his armor. His hair was dripping water droplets down his neck, and you watched as they rolled to the edge of his scarf, leaving small water stains in their wake.

“Thanks for saving me,” you said as Zed finished dressing himself. “I was too reckless. If you hadn’t been there…”

Zed looked like he had pondered that scenario himself, his gaze stony as he approached you, pulling you into him.

“But I was,” he replied simply.

You reached a hand up to lay on his chest, but jolted in surprise with a gasp when the hand faded into black smoke up to your wrist. Your panic reached Zed immediately as he pulled back to assess the situation, relaxing visibly when he noticed your vapored appendage.

“Calm down,” he said, the lack of any panic in his voice helping to bring your own level of stress down considerably.

You watched as he reached a hand up to yours, your hand returning to its normal solid state as he gently grasped your wrist, wisps of shadow dissipating into the air. When he let your wrist out of his grip, you waited for your hand to dissolve into smoke again, but to your great surprise, it stayed solid.

Zed spoke up again as you rotated your hand at the wrist, looking for anything unusual. “You threw up most of the ichor, but not all of it. It’s not surprising that you would develop some abilities from the amount you still have in your system.”

You were still a little panicked, and Zed gripped your hand, smiling at you with the patience of someone handling a small child. “You’re fine. I’ve had many years to master the shadows, I can teach you how to handle them.”

You let out a quiet laugh. “It’s been a long time since I’ve learned under you.”

“This time without having to hide away,” Zed added. “I can only hope the Kinkou will continue to evolve under Shen’s leadership.”

Hearing Shen’s name now felt bittersweet to you. He would not be so quick to forgive you for shacking up with his father’s murderer, and you couldn’t even tell him that it wasn’t true, because Zed _had_ killed Master Kusho, even if it was many years after he had been believed to. You would shelve your worries about Shen for a later time; for now, you just wanted to sleep somewhere that wasn’t outside.

“You guys ready to go?”

You turned sharply at the new voice that came from behind you. A young man stood at the edge of the trees that bordered the clearing, only wearing clothing on his lower half, a large weapon slung on a harness over one shoulder. A spark of recognition ignited in your mind, a brief memory of seeing him in Kusho’s chamber sending your hand down to where your daggers would be, until you remembered that all of your weapons had been taken when you had been captured. A hand on your shoulder had you looking back to Zed, who shook his head at you, and you stood down, trusting his judgment.

“Thought I’d give ya some alone time,” the man said with a smirk as he walked over to you and Zed. “You seemed like you needed it.”

“Kayn…” Zed replied, sounding tired.

Kayn stopped in front of you, extending a hand towards you. “Name’s Kayn. So you’re Master’s girl?”

You took his hand, unable to help a laugh at his word choice. Looking over at Zed, you relished the awkward look on his face. Grinning happily, you turned back to Kayn.

“I suppose I am,” you answered, letting go of his hand.

“We should head out,” Zed interrupted, taking you by the hand and leaving Kayn to follow behind the two of you as you departed the forest.

Kayn was not one to be deterred, clearly, as he easily caught up to you, walking on your other side. The grin he sent your way was conspiratorial, and he didn’t leave you waiting long to find out what he was thinking behind that expression.

“So, do you have any embarrassing stories about Master Zed when he was young?” Kayn asked slyly, eyes darting to Zed and then back to you. “…did he ever wet the bed?”

Zed’s hand tensed in your grip, and you laughed at his student’s eager questioning. “Let me think…”

Before you could ponder the question, you felt a strange sensation in your hand that was in Zed’s grip, and were barely able to look down and see that your hand had turned to shadow again before your vision went black for a moment. When you regained your senses a second or two later, you found yourself and Zed at the top of the hill that you had been climbing.

Looking back down the hill, you saw Kayn at the bottom beside two figures made of shadow. You looked at Zed beside you, who seemed to be purposefully looking away from his apprentice who had been left alone at the bottom of the hill, your shadow clones as his only company.

“Zed, did you just–”

Your question was promptly cut off by a shout from the bottom of the hill.

“Master, you can’t just shadow dash her away from me!” Kayn shouted as he began to climb the hill. “I’ll find out eventually!”

With a quiet huff, Zed tugged on your hand, pulling you along the grassy path and away from the still-shouting Kayn. Glancing at Zed’s face, you smiled. You would have to think of a good story to tell him when Kayn finally caught up to you, provided Zed didn’t cheat and shadow dash the two of you farther away again.


End file.
